Office of the Establishment Officer (PR) has issued instructions to facilitate implementation of online filing of APARs in SPARROW which are as follows: -
1. SPARROW was launched w.e.f. 01.04.2014 to enable the IAS officers to file their Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) online for the year 2013-2014. The very idea of switch over from manual to online system was to ensure ready access of the PAR dossier by the authorized users, preventing loss of PARs in transition, address the issues of ante-dating, remarks recorded by the Reporting Authorities without dates etc. PARs for the year 2014-15 would be recorded online only and the PARs recorded manually would not be allowed on record. This would, however, not apply to part PARs for the year 2014-15 which have been written manually and already taken on record.
[Para-1, 2 & 3 of D.O. letter No. 4/8/2008-EO(PR) dated 21.04.2015]
2. To make usage of SPARROW more user-friendly, an alternative to DSC in the form of 'eSign' for authenticating the documents including PAR has been made operational in SPAROW application in respect of IAS officers. eSign is an online service providing secure signing of electronic documents, wherein any Aadhaar card holder can digitally sign an electronic document through OTP based authentication. For OTP based authentication, the mobile number of the user should be registered with Aadhaar number. Since the eSign service does not require a physical digital signature token and unlike DSC no renewal is required, it is quite user-friendly.
[Para-2 & 3 of D.O. letter No. 4/4/2016-EO(PR) dated 19.08.2016]
3. In case any reference to the relevant OM is required, the same may be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink or from the DOPT’s website. List of the OMs mentioned in this document is as under:
· D.O. No. 4/8/2008-EO(PR) dated 21.04.2015
· D.O. No. 4/4/2016-EO(PR) dated 19.08.2016
कार्मिक एवं प्रशिक्षण विभागDepartment of 
