Mr. Mohamed Kasim Khan will present his first APS as per the details below:
Date: Feb 29, 2024
Time: 09:00 – 10:00 IST.
Venue: CTARA conference room
Title: The Indian Rural Observatory: Developing a Structured Framework for Systematic Collection and Assimilation of Data for Solving Problems Specific to Rural Development in India
Guide: Prof. Pennan Chinnasamy
RPC: Prof. Chaaruchandra Korde & Prof. Kumar Appaiah
Abstract:
India is predominantly a rural nation with around two-thirds of its population and 70% workforce residing in rural areas. Rural development is understood as the unfolding of socio-economic equality, inclusiveness, and sustainability of the ecosystem in rural areas using collaborative and participatory efforts of the local panchayats, and state and central governments. In the current day scenario, where technology plays a vital role, the development of villages has started to happen at a pace nearly equal to that of cities. The digital divide between the resourceful cities and the remotest corners of villages is being bridged with the advent of smart data-driven technology and interventions that assist the system in precisely pinpointing the requirement on time. In India, many agencies aim to aid sustainable development. Most of these agencies are central or state government-owned and are operated individually or under a specific ministry. Each agency, to formulate policies and rules, collects data and manages it. For example, a water resources department collects data on reservoir water levels, water demand, and water supply for sustainably managing water supply schemes. Therefore, agencies are divided into themes/focus areas or departments, and data is housed in each of these units individually. This bifurcation of agencies has resulted in limited inter-department collaborations, thereby reducing holistic research views. A holistic plan will need diverse data from various sources, which may not be housed in a single agency. For -example, a holistic view of groundwater depletion involves data and understanding from the irrigation department, power department, agriculture department surface water departments, etc, as water changes its course between compartments. Datacenter and Data lab concepts are common for IT fields and also for Urban development, however, such infrastructure is not available for rural regions, mostly due to the paucity of data and lack of capacity. On that note, there is a need for a center that can collect, store, and analyze data from different agencies for rural development. A typical data center consists of networked computers, power distribution, computer accessories, and storage that can procure, organize, process, and store data from which new information is produced. As such, some data centers are not a single entity, but consist of many elements and collaborations, while some data centers exist as a consolidated unit. In this report, a specific data center for rural development is proposed wherein the key objective is to develop a structured framework for the systematic collection and assimilation of data for problems specific to rural development in the Indian context. A case study with an ongoing rural issue will be studied using the developed rural observatory. In this APS, he will be demonstrating the base framework, and visualization scenarios for data collected through a web interface.