IT enabled services making a profound impact on our daily lives: Deb

Guwahati, Dec 3 (UNI) Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Santosh Mohan Deb said here today that new frontiers in science and technology like nano-technology, genetic engineering and Internet are helping mankind to revolutionise the world.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 21st Engineering Congress, Mr Deb said that they must ensure that these innovations and inventions are not just confined to a few cities and towns of urban India, but percolate down to the villages and rural areas, specially in the North-Eastern parts of the country, which has lagged behind the main land states due to its remoteness, poor connectivity, hilly and often inhospitable terrain.

''This can only be possible with the interest and initiative of the brilliant talent pool of our country present here today,'' he said.

The 21st Engineering Congress, with the theme ''challenge of Engineering for sustainable 10 per cent growth and beyond'', has been organised by Assam State centre of Engineering Institute of India at the Prag Jyoti ITA-Centre for Performing Arts here.

Inaugurating the Congress, the union minister said that micro-chip aided Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services are making a profound impact on daily lives and IT interventions in business in the form of e-commerce and e-governance have brought greater efficiency to the system.

Talking about ''Bridging Divides: Including the excluded'' -- he said the approach paper to the eleventh plan mentions that ''connectivity'' is the key issue for the North Eastern states. All the modes of transport infrastructure-roads, railways, civil and water transportation have to be holistically developed to mainstream the North Eastern region with the rest of the country, he stated.

Mr Deb emphasised the need to further research in ''material sciences'' so that new construction materials are discovered to reduce costs and improve quality buildings. Since North Eastern region lies in the seismic belt so the engineers of the region have to take the challenges to design and fabricate cost optimum and earthquake resistant houses for the people of the region.

During the three-day long programe, six memorial lectures would be delivered by eminent speakers like Dr U S Rao, Chairman, PRL Council, ISRO-DOS, Dr Sankar Sen, former West Bengal power minister and a technocrate, Vice admiral S K K Krishnan, Mr Nam Ho, senior VP and chairman, International Cooperation of KPEA, Korea, Dr D N Buragohain, former director of Guwahati IIT, and Lt Gen (retd) D P Sehgal, President, Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer.

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