By SK.Vyas
New Delhi, August 11, 2020: Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare virtually launched the Krishi Megh (NARES-Cloud Infrastructure and Services) along with the KVC ALUNET (Krishi Vishwavidyalaya Chhatr Alumni Network) and Online Accreditation System for Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions (HEI) at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi today.
The Union Minister emphasized that the Government of India-World Bank-funded National Agricultural Higher Education Project is designed for strengthening the national agricultural education system in the country with the overall objective to provide more relevant and high-quality education to the agricultural university students that is in tune with the New Education Policy - 2020. Shri Tomar accentuated the need to save and preserve the important research-based data in a prompt digitized form to enable its access anywhere in any corner of the country and the world. He also stressed on enabling private investments in agriculture. The Minister regarded the Krishi Megh as a step forward towards digital agriculture of New India as has been envisaged by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Shri Tomar highlighted the main features of the Krishi Megh that is equipped with the latest AI / Deep learning software / tools kits for building and deploying of deep learning based applications through image analysis, disease identification in livestock, etc.
Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare urged to concentrate on making 2 to 3 ICAR Institutes as the research centres of the international repute. The Minister stressed that this initiative will bring more glory to the Council at the global level. He also stressed on providing the real time data to the researchers.
Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) stressed on maximizing the use of internet technology / digitalization. He stressed that the Krishi Megh is a new edition in digital India enabling the farmers, researchers, students and policy makers more equipped with updated and latest information regarding agriculture, research, education and extension in digital form generated by ICAR institutes and State Agriculture Universities.
While expressing his comments on this facility Dr Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University said that KVC ALUNET will be a good platform for the alumni of State Agricultural Universities'. This shall enable the alumni of all the Agricultural Universities in connecting with each other and making it possible to assist the students to provide support to their alma maters.