India seeks US support for proposed ‘Integrated Data System’
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, January 13: Aiming to harvest data for efficiency in governance, India has sought the support of the US for the proposed Integrated Data System. Over a dozen ministries are already integrating data with PM Gati Shakti, as the Central government is seeking a greater convergence among various sectors.
Union Minister of state Jeetendra Singh on Friday sought the US help for data integration project, saying: Data collection at present is being done by various institutions in different ways, but the Integrated Data System will go a long way in data analytics and associated benefits”. The Minister said, the knowledge partnership with NSF-National Centre for Science and Engineering Statistics will be of great value addition in terms of long-term capacity development in this area.
Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation of the US, assured the minister for necessary support in carrying out the task. Panchanathan was leading an US delegation in India for greater collaboration among scientific institutions of the two countries.
Singh also sought scaling up the cooperation in the space sector and mainly in emerging areas like management of space debris. He also recalled that the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite is expected to be launched in 2023. The Minister said, Science and technology education partnership has been another dimension of the outreach to establish linkages between American and Indian institutions and students.
Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, S. Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Satyajit Mohanty, Joint Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat and other senior officials of all the six S&T departments and joined the meeting.
This was the third meeting of National Science Foundation of the US with the Union Minister for Science and Technology in the last six months. Panchanathan assured Singh that the subjects identified earlier as well as brought to the fore in today’s meeting would be taken to logical conclusion. He also promised to open new avenues of cooperation in areas like critical minerals, smart agriculture, bio-economy and 6G technologies.
He conveyed to the minister that more joint calls would be taken from March, 2023 on identified projects. Singh told the NSF delegation that the Indian scientific diaspora is one of the world’s largest and powerful diaspora communities in shaping global discourse, particularly in the technological innovation landscape. He said, both the countries must explore avenues for the US and India to jointly identify, nurture, and promote deep-tech start-ups in areas of mutual interest.
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