New York University applauds Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s efforts in using technology to transform young lives

For three days last week, Bikaner in Rajasthan hosted the fifth event in its DigiFest series, meant to take technology and tech-driven entrepreneurship to the people. At this year’s DigiFest, New York University’s (NYU) Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in the Tisch School of Arts felicitated Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for her initiatives, and the impact they have had in transforming young lives by means of technology and education.

Recognising the Chief Minister’s vision to introduce IT, e-governance and entrepreneurship in the state, the certificate says,

“We are highly impressed to see such an effective implementation of IT in various state government schemes launched by Smt. Raje in a very short span of time. Smt. Vasundhara Raje’s determination to bring a digital revolution in Rajasthan through her e-governance initiatives is commendable.”

By integrating the use of IT in almost every government scheme that has been launched to benefit the state’s residents, Rajasthan has established itself as a model state in the field of IT and e-governance.

In the past too, Rajasthan has won several awards for its e-governance and technology initiatives. Most recently, the Chief Minister was awarded the CM of the Year for eGovernance at the Skoch Summit in New Delhi. The state also won the Platinum Award for State of the Year ICT, and other Platinum Awards for its Bhamashah Yojana, Fraud Detection Framework, Raj eVault initiatives.

The concluding ceremony of the Bikaner Digifest last week provided a glimpse of the efforts of the Chief Minister towards making Rajasthan a major IT hub of India with a slew of new, digitally powered initiatives launched at its conclusion. The goal is to transform the life of the common man through the use of technology across different sectors - agriculture, governance, finance, education and even traditional arts and crafts.

At the DigiFest, the Rajasthan government launched new ‘Abhay’ command centres for seven districts in the state. An Abhay command centre uses technology to help local authorities control and prevent crime.

The government also launched a Security Operations Centre for cybersecurity in Jaipur, a disaster data recovery centre in Jodhpur, an integrated health management system, the ‘Jal Dhaara’ command centre, a water plant for over 300 villages, and a video conferencing facility for the state and Raj WiFi, which will encompass 2500 panchayats.

Apart from this, at the DigiFest, startups from across the state pitched their products in the sectors of education, agriculture, sustainable housing and even cybersecurity. Three startups received funding of Rs 15 lakh each from the Bhamashah Techno Fund: edtech startup Bodhisatva AI, medical healthcare records platform Medcords, and security startup Capacita Connect.

The Government also organised a Job Fair, through which over 5,000 students secured jobs in different parts of the country, including with companies such as Wipro and PaisaBaazar.