To protect the precious data of the government's premier research body ICAR, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, on August 11, 2020, launched a data recovery centre 'Krishi Megh'. The data recovery centre has been set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad.
At present, the main data centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) in New Delhi.
According the official statement, "NAARM, Hyderabad has been chosen as it lies in a different seismic zone with regard to the Data Centre at ICAR-IASRI in New Delhi. Hyderabad is also suitable as skilled IT manpower is available along with other suitable climatic conditions such as low humidity level which is controllable in the data center environment."
The data recovery centre at NAARM is synchronised with the data centre at IASRI. It has been built to mitigate the risk, enhance the quality, availability and accessibility of e-governance, research, extension and education in the field of agriculture in India, the statement elaborated.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar emphasised the need to save and preserve the important research-based data in a prompt digitised form to enable its access anywhere in any corner of the country and the world. The minister said 'Krishi Megh' is a step forward towards digital agriculture of 'New India', as has been envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tomar further said NAHEP was designed for strengthening the national agricultural education system in India 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. 'Krishi Megh' has been set up under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), funded by both the government and World Bank.
Tomar also launched the KVC ALUNET (Krishi Vishwavidyalaya Chhatr Alumni Network) and Online Accreditation System for Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions.
Source: PTI