Expressnews
Chennai, Nov, 2024: In a significant step forward in the state’s digital transformation journey, Digital Prosperity For Asia, organized ‘TechMunnetram Tamil Nadu’—an event to celebrate and advance the state’s commitment to digital ecosystem. Theevent was supported by Tamil Nadu State Government’s Information Technology and Digital Services Department, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, StartupTN and Tamil Nadu Technology Hub (iTNT). The event featured insightful discussions led by prominent startup founders, industry experts, Academicians and senior policymakers, covering the state’s evolving role as a digital leader and the essential contribution of startups.
Delivering the chief guest address, Mr. Kumar Jayant, I.A.S, Additional Chief Secretary, IT and Digital Services Department of Tamil Nadu said “I congratulate Digital Prosperity for Asia for conducting TechMunnetram Tamil Nadu and for getting together innovators, entrepreneurs, educational institutes and startups. The IT department looks forward to discussions emanating from this event and would like to hear about the ideas of the attendees. We are looking forward to interactions with educational institutions around research and development.”While sharing about key initiatives of the Tamil Nadu government enabled by Digital Transformation, he said “The Tamil Nadu government has been using the power of data and analytics to benefits the citizens. Under the Kalaignar MagalirUrimai Thittam scheme launched by the Tamil Nadu Government, 1.1 crore women benefit every month. The scheme could be rolled out quickly and efficiently because the state government leveraged technology and the use of the state family database to compute around 95% of the analysis. Similarly, technology has been leveraged to roll out ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’ scheme and Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme to promote higher education amongst students completing their education from government-run schools.”
Dr. T.S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine delivering the keynote address shared an example of the department’s approach to improving health outcomes in the state, he said, “The health department uses technology for program-based applications to prevent, screen, treat and follow-up on non-communicable diseases like Hypertension and Diabetes. This initiative has benefitted 1.98 crore citizens. This initiative has also been recognized with a UN award.” Dr. Selvavinayagam also discussed over potential opportunities to leverage technology in making predictive models aligned to the One Health concept and directed attendees to focus on opportunities arising out of geriatric care.
Ms. Vanitha Venugopal, CEO of iTNT (Tamil Nadu Technology Hub), delivered the plenary address, said “Tamil Nadu is currently considered the tech talent of the world and working together will lead to Tamil Nadu being looked at as innovative economy of the world in the coming decade.” She further added “iTNT is keen on working with AI and Deep-tech startups in tier-2 and tier-3 cities to drive success stories and also global players like Amazon Web Services.”
In addition to the above dignitaries, the event saw participation from Mr. R Kannan I.A.S, Managing Director of ELCOT(Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, the nodal agency for Information and Communication Technology), Mr. Bhanupreet Saini from AWS (India), Andrew Wiltshire from AWSHealthcare Policy APAC), Mr. Suresh Mariaselvam from ICMR-NIR, Dr. Sujatha Vijayakumar from Hashtag Medical Communications, Ms. Sharmila Devadoss from MedIoTek Health Systems, Mr. Mageswar R from StartupTN and BeyondTN Initiative, Mr. Divanshu Kumar from Solinas Integrity, Mr. Rahul Ganapathy from Atsuya Technologies and Mr. Gokul Visweswaran from UHI.app.
