Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati recently concluded the two-day brainstorming workshop for North-East India for structured discussion on Technology Vision 2047 with faculty members, professionals, and stakeholders from various scientific disciplines invited from the eight states of North-East India.
The workshop was jointly organized by IIT Guwahati and Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). It was designed to capture the thoughts and ideas about future India from the experts.
Prominent industrialist Prabhat Kamal Bezbaruah was the chief guest of the programme.
Over 60 experts and about 70 students from different disciplines attended the workshop including Dr Deben Buragohain (Former CEO, IGGL); Prof Ramesh Deka (VC, Cotton University); Prof Narayan Talukdar (VC, Assam Down Town University); Prof Alok Buragohain, Chancellor (Girijananda Choudhury University); Sazzad Alam, Joint Secretary, Industries and Commerce (Govt. of Assam); Advocate Deba Debajit Kr Das (Guwahati HC); Rajiv Kr Bora (Former Chairman, APSC); David Gogoi CEO and Founder Zerund Bricks); Dr Bibhuti Bhusan Borthakur (Director, BBCI); Prof Abu Taleb Khan (VC, Aliya University); Dr Saiful Alam (Kokrajhar Medical College); Jayanta Bordoloi (Ayur Shristi Health Science Co-operative Society, Ltd.); Manoj Das (Former Director, IIE and NERAMAC); Dr Bharat Basistha (Director, DST, Sikkim); Dr Dipjyoti Rajkhowa (Former Joint Director, ICAR-NEH) and Puranjoy Neog (Infotech Solutions).
Speaking at the programme, Prof Parameswar K Iyer, Officiating Director, IIT Guwahati, shared his thoughts about future of India.
"North East region is blessed with rich biodiversity and every state has its own unique agricultural products with the possibility to tap into the world market. However, the problem is that they perish before they reach the market due to a lack of storage facilities and other allied amenities. Facilitating an ecosystem of allied technologies, skilling of manpower in niche technologies and promoting technology-aided development will provide thrust for this region and make it an engine of growth in multiple sectors,” he said.
He laid emphasis that technology development can be a game changer in this aspect.
Prof Pradeep Srivastava, Executive Director, TIFAC, explained the philosophy of Technology Vision 2047.
He said, "During Amritkal, on the directives of PM, TIFAC has initiated the process for drafting the Technology Vision 2047 document with the broad vision of achieving Technology Impendence by 2047."
Key thematic areas of the workshop included - Climate Change and Disaster Management, Education and Skill Development, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Human and Animal Health, and Industry.
The workshop also focused on providing a platform to the students and youth to exercise their vision to design the future India.
As students are one of the key stakeholders to capture the aspirations and thoughts to identify weak signals which would be disruptive and have potential to change the entire future scenarios, the Institute also organized a student conclave as part of the Constructive meeting of the workshop.
The event was successfully conducted by Dr Gautam Goswami, Scientist G / Adviser and Head, Technology Vision 2047, TIFAC, New Delhi, and Prof Utpal Bora, Head, Centre for the Environment, IIT Guwahati.
The brainstorming session by the sectoral experts brought out the key challenges that every sector may encounter in the long run of 2047 and their possible technological and policy related solutions. The amalgamation of Human and digital technology interface in almost each sector has been prominently mentioned by the experts.
