Ananta Ramchiary, the director of Baganpara, Dhamdhama, Baksa Farmers Producers’ Organisations is one of the beneficiaries of the programme on Information Technology conducted by the National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (Nielit), a Government of India organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. He is of the view that use of technology to advance farming accords a lot of benefit to users. Using mobile phones for beneficial use in farming was one of the subjects where hundreds of farmers of the three areas mentioned above took part in the programme conducted by this organisation.
“I took part in a training programme by Nielit which taught us about the use of various apps in mobile phones in seeking suggestions on agriculture, Government schemes, and use of helpline numbers. We were also trained about digital payment. It was a very informative one,” said Ananta.
Beginning February 2022 to March 2024, Nielit has trained 1.65 lakh people in the North East to enhance their digital skills. These are pro bono initiatives divided into four categories for youths, students, farmers, women, and senior citizens. (Please See Box)
A senior officer of Nielit Dr Saurabh Mahanta told Asom Barta that the idea of the training being imparted to various sections of the society is to enhance their digital literacy and skills. “Some courses like BlockChain, C++, mobile technology, etc., are increasingly becoming popular. We need to be in sync with these technologies. To achieve these objectives, we have signed MoUs with more than 20 educational institutions, including Kaziranga University, JB College, CIT, Kokrajhar, BHB College, Cinnamarra College. We are in the process of signing similar MoUs with 30 other institutions,” he said.
He informed this reporter that two of their trainees Ujjwal Ray and Panchannan Nath have secured employment in CIT, Kokrajhar after being trained in BlockChain technology. Satyanan Nandi and Ayush Kumar have joined Sutherland Global while Jyotishman Das has joined APT Software. “Once we begin our professional courses, these numbers will rise. We are encouraged by our initial success. We will expand our mandate to incubate digital and electronic start-ups soon,” Mahanta said.
“Our students are reaping the benefit of the programme conducted by Nielit in our institute. Be it in the case of their employment or general usage, these courses are of immense help,” said Assistant Professor of CIT Kokrajhar Vikram Choudhury.
Phanidhar Mech of the Department of History in BHB College told Asom Barta that courses conducted by Nielit have created awareness among students and guardians alike on digital technologies. “Of late, a course on solar power is being planned. Our college has already been provided with materials related to the course. We are sure that these will create a human resource base required by the country to meet growing demand for solar power,” he said.
