India's super computer mission expected to propel Digital India in big way

Institutions and organisations under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) are contributing to Digital India "in a very big way" with the super computer mission expected to be a major contributor, DST Secretary Prof Ashutosh Sharma said. "All our institutes and organisations are contributing to Digital India in a very big way", Sharma said on on the sidelines of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) in Kolkata.

Citing the example of a new super computer mission, he said, "The mission will spend about Rs 4500 crore over the next seven years to set up state of the art super computers all across the country. This will be a very big contributor to Digital India. "Of course in terms of services like NATMO, they are doing digital geo information system...they are developing these digital maps. The idea is that everybody can access them by a click of mouse sitting at home", he said.

"They (NATMO) have many thematic maps for developing the nation, in decision making, about development and governance. And all of them are being prepared in digital form and this will contribute in the Centre's initiative of Digital India as well", Sharma said. About training people for the same initiative, Sharma said, "Many training programmes are on the way under the coordination with the Survey of India which is also into digital mapping and surveys".

He also said a scientific interface (a standing committee) should be there to help NATMO "understand the directions in which they should move". "Administrative interface is already there but we need scientific interface to develop scientific vision for the organisation (NATMO) on where we must be moving and how, what are the technological changes that are taking place and to sensitise and prepare NATMO in particular. "In order to do this we need to bring in the best experts in digital communication, digital storage, web based technologies and thematic technologies", the DST secretary said.

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