Hon’ble Union Minister, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad encourages DIOs to explore potential avenues and bring about a wave of digital change
Digital India journey has evinced global interest and people are eager to learn from Indian experience. There is digital appetite and DIOs have to work as part of a larger team of the country. We have to take India higher.
The third edition of VIVID (Vision Insight and Voices as India goes Digital), the National Meet on Grassroot Informatics, was organised by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi from 21st to 22nd February 2019. VIVID, an annual National Meet to conduct healthy interactions with NICians, includes District Informatics Officer (DIO) Meet and Awards Ceremony to reward the contribution of officers positioned at various District Offices across the country.
The event was inaugurated by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, along with Shri Ajay Sawhney, IAS, Secretary, Shri Pankaj Kumar, Additional Secretary, Shri Gopalakrishnan S., AS & FA and JS (Emerging Technologies), Smt. Simmi Chaudhary, Economic Adviser and Group Coordinator, MeitY, Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI, Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC, Smt. Nandita Chaudhri, DDG, NIC and Smt. Rama Nangpal, DDG, NIC.
Highlighting the important role played by DIOs in the application of ICT services, Dr. Neeta Verma, in her welcome address, elaborated digital programmes being implemented across the country through various District Offices. She also encouraged DIOs to tap emerging technologies for the enhancement of services.
On the occasion, a Digital India Compendium on ‘Digital Bharat, Saksham Bharat’, making citizens conversant with the success story of Digital India, was released by the Hon’ble Minister.
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad also presented- NIC TechGov Awards and Swachhata Awards to the winning NIC teams from State & District Offices and State Centres respectively.
Launches by the Hon’ble Minister Manifesting the active contribution of NIC to the aim of Digital India, the following launches were made by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad.
••AI based Digidhan Mitra Chatbot ••Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0) Scheme ••Centres of Excellence on ✒IOT Open lab, STPI Bengaluru ✒ESDM Incubation, STPI Bhubaneswar ✒Emerging Technologies, NASSCOM, Gandhinagar ✒Emerging Technologies, NASSCOM, Visakhapatnam
Many projects are attaining nation-wide footprints. We need to work on some key points, including the adoption of the Indian Enterprise Architecture and the use of open APIs.
Appreciating the efforts of DIOs and exhorting them to stay enthusiastic about their work, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “VIVID has been designed to empower and give you exposure.”
The Hon’ble Minister further added, “NIC has the responsibility to deploy technology for improving governance and make growth more inclusive and sustainable. Digital India initiative should be seen beyond IT and governance. The Hon’ble Prime Minister has taken an initiative to empower ordinary people. NIC has the responsibility to make people use digital technology with the objective of bridging rural-urban gaps and also ensuring that the national efforts to bring about transparency in governance are reached.”
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad drew attention of DIOs to three areas i.e., Agriculture, Primary Education and Healthcare in the country. The Hon’ble Minister motivated DIOs to devise strategies for the growth and expansion of these sectors using low-cost technologies.
Shri Pankaj Kumar also addressed the gathering and focussed on the issue of connectivity with DIOs. He said that information on the issues or challenges faced by them should be obtained.
The dignitaries were honoured with VIVID 2019 mementoes and Smt. Rama Nangpal gave the Vote of Thanks.
Thereafter, technical sessions were held by NIC Officers on Software Quality, Artificial Intelligence and TechGov. The third session comprised of sub sessions on Introduction to NIC TechGov Challenge and introduction to PRISM, Introduction to TULEAP – a platform for Collaborative Development, MinT: Mining Tool – TechGov Innovation Winner, and Device Integrator –TechGov Innovation Winner. The second day also witnessed deliberations by NIC Officers on Government Instant Messaging (GIM), Gov Mail – New Features, Big Data and Analytics – Challenges & Issues, and Opportunities for Advanced Analytics in Government.