Advisory Committee of SITA reviews ongoing projects at Janata Bhawan, Dispur

GUWAHATI: Advisory Committee meeting of SITA (State Innovation and Transformation Aayog) was held on Wednesday chaired by the Vice-Chairman Dipok Kumar Barthakur at his office chamber at Janata Bhawan, Dispur.

At the outset of the meeting, Dr. Mridul Hazarika, Advisor, SITA apprised the member of the Advisory Committee about the virtual meeting previously held between SITA and SMART Technologies, Canada about a necessity to explore possibility of reducing digital divide among students in schools of Assam and empowering teachers and students to face the post-COVID situation. In this regard, he presented a pilot project on development scope for digital empowerment of students and teachers in government co-educational schools.

Professor Deben Ch. Baruah, Head of Department, Department of Energy, Tezpur University who joined virtually in the meeting and presented his interim progress report on the project 'Development of a smart platform for promotion of renewal energy in Assam after signing of MoA with SITA. He stated that after receiving the first instalment of the estimated cost of the project and 20 per cent of the work is completed. For the project Research Associates and technical members were appointed to initiate the work like identification of potential resources, collection and assessment of data and GIS modelling of village/municipality level etc. He proposed for a workshop to be organised jointly by SITA and Tezpur University for the stakeholders of the State government.

As per agenda of the meeting, Siddhartha Bora, MD, Ag Spert Technologies (P) Ltd. made a virtual brief presentation about a project proposal 'Data driven smart agricultural solutions for indigenous farmers of North East India to grow more from less resources'. In this regard, he stressed that the aim of the project is to deploy artificial intelligence technological intervention in North East India to enhance agricultural productivity and in-farm efficiency.

Professor Nani Gopal Mahanta, Director, Centre for South-East Asian Studies, Gauhati University delivered a presentation on the progress of the study after signing MoA with SITA on 'Northeast India's connection with South East Asia-the historial and civilization link'. He stated about the engagement of co-ordinators and research team from different parts of NE region especially in the adjoining states bordering South East Asia. The main theme of the project is to find the traditional socio-cultural-economic linkages between Assam and South East Asia and to find a historical and contemporary perspective of the ethnic communities having presence in India, Myanmar and China and also the historical and present significance of the nature of border or frontier.

Mukesh Sahu, CEO of SITA, K. N Hazarika, Advisor SITA and Professor Chandan Sharma, Tezpur University took part in the discussion and gave their valuable suggestions to achieve the goals within a stipulated time period, stated a release.

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