USAID - Skymet project wins the prestigious 'Best Agriculture and Farming Initiative' in the 5th Annual BW Businessworld Digital India Summit & Awards
The Digital India Program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society & knowledge economy. The fifth edition of “Digital India Summit & Awards” was organized by Businessworld and co-powered by Vodafone-Idea. The award focused on the three thrust area i.e. Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen, Governance & Services on Demand and Digital Empowerment of Citizens- for which nominations were invited from the private as well as government sector.
Skymet was chosen as a winner under the “Best Agriculture and Farming Initiative-Private Sector” for the project on “Partnership in Climate Services for Resilient Agriculture in India”. The project is expected to benefit 80,000 farmers cope with climate variability in 9 states of India: Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Rajasthan. The USAID - Skymet partnership is empowering farmers make informed decisions regarding their land and resources by sending real-time weather forecasts and agro-advisories on their mobiles. The aim is to deliver reliable information fast enough for farmers to act on it. The project is also facilitating agricultural insurance to minimize weather-related risks in farming.
The chief guest of the event was Shri. Dhotre Sanjay Sahmrao, Hon'ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. Key personnel from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Telecommunication, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Finance, Niti Ayog, States IT Departments, State Health & Family Welfare Departments, States Education Department, City CEO's & Commissioners and Public Sector Undertakings were invited as decision makers. The jury included eminent leaders from the public an private sector:
- Dr. Rashmi Singh, Secretary, New Delhi Municipal Council
- Ajay Chagti, Special Secretary, Department of IT, Government of NCT of Delhi
- Vinit Goenka, Member - Governing Council, CRIS, Ministry of Railways, GOI
- Dr. Anurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld Media Pvt. Ltd.
- Dr. Lovneesh Chanana, Vice President - Digital Government (APJ), SAP India Pvt Ltd.
- Dr. Charru Malhotra, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration
- Sourav Mishra, Senior Manager - India Market Development, NASSCOM
To get an overview of the project, please watch the project video on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_4Chh-jKOg
For more information on the event, logon to: http://bwevents.co.in/bw/digital-india-summit-19/