NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 12: To promote data centric governance in education, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu E-governance Agency.
Minister of Information Technology Mr Manikandan and Secretary of IT Mr Santhosh Babu were present when the MOU was signed between the two parties.
“We believe that by teaming up with the TNeGA we can contribute towards multiple pillars of the government, covering areas such as education, health-care and agriculture,” Nandan Sudarsanam, Assistant professor of the institute’s IIT Madras, department of management studies.
Facilitate research in data science
The aim behind the MOU is to encourage research related to data science for the government. The other objective is to perform capacity building in areas like data science, communication technology, information. The Tamil Nadu e-governance agency is collaborating with the institute’s Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBC-DSAI) for the project.
Santosh K Misra, CEO of Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency said, “The Governments need to tap the power of AI, IoT, Blockchain and Drones in addressing the needs of their citizens. Tamil Nadu Government is the first state government to collaborate with IIT-M for harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology in areas of health, education and agriculture.
What is the TNeGA?
The Tamil Nadu E-governance Agency is a nodal agency set up by the Tamil Nadu government to facilitate e-government initiatives in the state. Secretaries of the 11 Mission Mode Departments are part of TNeGA and held it to deliver services to citizens through the digital medium. The agency was established under the Information Technology Department of the state government.
About IIT Madras
IIT Madras is one of the premier engineering colleges of the country. The institute boast of around 8000 students and 550 faculty members. As per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking, IIT Madras was ranked the among the best engineering colleges in India. However, in world rankings the institute is only among the top 300 in the world as per Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Admission to IIT Madras is facilitated through The Joint Entrance Exam or JEE. The first stage of the admission process is is called JEE Main. Students who qualify JEE Main, have to appear for JEE Advanced to be considered for admission. JEE Main would be conducted by the National Testing Agency(NTA) twice a year from 2019.
