SHILLONG, JUN 4: Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on Thursday pitched five strategic initiatives to make NESAC a “transformative institution” for the Northeast, focusing on space tech, disaster resilience and green accounting.
Chairing the NESAC Society meeting in Shillong, Scindia said the plan includes “high-resolution village resource mapping; regular monitoring of wetlands, forests, rivers and landscapes; promotion of geospatial and space-technology startups in the Northeast; development of an all-hazard disaster resilience digital twin platform, NER-Shield; and creation of a Northeast Green Wealth and Natural Capital Accounting framework.”
He noted NESAC and DoNER have worked together for over 26 years.
“NESAC and DoNER have shared an umbilical relationship since their inception. Conceived under the visionary leadership of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both institutions have served the eight Northeastern States continuously for over 26 years as instruments of development and transformation,” Scindia said.
Since the last NESAC meeting, 50 projects have been completed and 78 are under implementation. “The completion of 50 projects since the previous Society Meeting represents the creation of a valuable digital knowledge base supporting the development aspirations of over 4.5 crore people in the region,” he said.
On disaster resilience, Scindia called for “hyper-local, multilingual last-mile alert systems integrated with telecom networks” and expanding risk-monitoring tools for landslides.
He also pushed UAV use for jobs: “Drone technologies and… leveraging NESAC’s UAV capabilities to create livelihood and skill-development opportunities for youth and women, including through convergence with the Namo Drone Didi initiative.”
Crediting ISRO’s role, he said: “The participation of ISRO has provided new propulsion to NESAC’s efforts. Missions such as Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 demonstrate India’s technological excellence and our ability to achieve extraordinary outcomes with remarkable efficiency.”
“As envisaged by Home Minister Amit Shah, we must adopt a future-ready strategy that harnesses space technology, geospatial intelligence, communications infrastructure and innovation to transform governance, strengthen resilience and improve the quality of life across the Northeast,” Scindia said.
The meeting was attended by Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma, MoS DoNER Sukanta Majumdar, and ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan.
By Our Reporter
