Oracle today announced that NITI Aayog has engaged Oracle to help it modernize vital IT infrastructure underpinning the Aspirational Districts Programme. A key project of the Indian Government, its purpose is to help improve the quality of life of citizens in 112 of India’s most backward districts, constituting 28 percent of India’s population of nearly 1.4 billion.
Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said “This program is aligned with our Prime Minister’s vision of a new India. It focuses on improving people’s capacity to participate in India’s economic development. Data-driven decisions will help identify the strengths and weaknesses of these districts and pave the way for their progress. By using a range of Oracle Cloud services, we are looking to fast-track their transformation by providing simplified data access, increased process automation, and real-time data governance.”
The program uses data to identify top-performing districts – these could be Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, Nandurbar in Maharashtra, Dahod in Gujarat, Kupwara in Jammu & Kashmir, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, or Godda in Jharkhand, among others. The weaker performing districts are encouraged to catch-up with top performers, by competing with, and learning from them in the spirit of competitive and cooperative collaboration.
Information is collected across five key themes, on 49 Key Performance Indicators, identified as having the greatest impact on the quality of life and economic productivity. They include education, health and nutrition, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, basic infrastructure including access to road, potable water, internet connectivity, and housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G).
This work requires assimilating thousands of data points from multiple sources and in differing formats from across the country, which is checked for data accuracy (triggering alerts in the case of the data feed appearing to be inconsistent), and integrated for analysis and reporting. Critical to the success of the program is for this data to be fed back in real-time to administrators, district collectors, government officers and the general public via a highly visual and intuitive dashboard: http://championsofchange.gov.in/, to ensure the data is accessible and understandable by all.
Oracle Autonomous Database, the world’s first and only true autonomous database, is at the heart of data management in this program. Being self-driving, self-securing and self-repairing it requires a minimal IT team and resources to support it. Highly secure by nature, the system and the data it manages are protected from system failure and attack by machine learning (ML) and automation. ML and AI built into its data capabilities, enable greater insight to be gained than a human-based system alone.
Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India said, “Oracle has committed nearly 30 years in India, serving its people, the government and enterprise firms. Robust and modern technologies are the backbone for real social and economic transformation at micro and macro levels. We are honored to support NITI Aayog in this transformation program. With a range of Oracle Cloud services, we look forward to supporting this program’s success and facilitate the creation of a new India.”
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