GUWAHATI: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma has pushed the agenda of digital transformation at the historic launch of Digital Northeast Vision 2022, released by Union minister for electronics and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad here on Saturday.
“The Meghalaya government has approved an amount of Rs 35 crore for the construction of Phase-I of the Shillong Tech Park Building located at the 80-acre Tech Park campus in New Shillong Township,” Sangma said.
Of the 80 acres, an area of 10 acres has already been handed over to the National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) for construction of its campus, the foundation of which was laid by unveiling a digital plaque here, an official statement said.
The Technology Park Building Phase-I, which is scheduled to be completed by 2020, will have about 1200 seats. These seats will be made available to IT and ITeS companies to setup their operations, which will open up employment opportunities for the local youths.
The Phase I building will also have facilities earmarked for incubation and skilling centres besides centres of excellence. About 5000 sq ft will be available for setting up a data centre.
“The availability of skilled manpower, government land, infrastructure and a salubrious climate makes Shillong an ideal destination for setting up a regional data centre. By 2022, I expect that all the 80 acres of the Shillong Technology Park would be fully occupied with direct employment opportunities for at least 12,000 of our youths”, the chief minister said.
He informed that the government has made investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) component in the education sector with the support of the Asian Development Bank funded project — Supporting Human Capital Development in Meghalaya, wherein 117 school buildings are being constructed.
“Each of these schools will be equipped with computer labs, smart classrooms and digital libraries with rich content and well trained teachers,” he said.
“Our ICT investments and initiatives in education are paying rich dividends and by 2022 we expect our youths to be able to take full advantage of the Digital India and Digital North East programmes of the government of India,” Sangma said.
The chief minister further informed that in the agriculture sector, Meghalaya has implemented an innovative project, 1917 iTEAMS, which is a first of its kind in the country.
This is an IT-enabled platform where farmers can contact a call centre for their needs for advisory services and farm inputs.
“By 2022, I expect the 1917 iTEAMS to become a thriving e-commerce platform to connect buyers and producers of farm products. I also expect 1917 iTEAMS to become a rich repository of agricultural knowledge of all kinds where the advancements in data analytics and artificial intelligence will be fully leveraged”, he said.
