Odisha largely free from caste, religion resonance in electoral politics
Caste calculation, religious affiliation has never emerged as a tool to woo voters.
The State Government has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Chicago Trust, India, to set up a Data, Policy, and Innovation Centre (DPIC) that will enable rigorous, evidence-based governance while using new advances in econometrics, data science, and machine learning, officials said here on Saturday.
The scope of this programmatic partnership will involve researchers from the University of Chicago providing data analysis and evaluation assistance to the Government of Odisha schemes and policies to benefit the state districts and blocks.
The MoU was signed between Manoj Kumar Pattnaik, Chief Executive Officer, Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) and Dr Leni Chaudhari, Executive Director, University of Chicago Center in India, in Bhubaneswar on Saturday in the presence of Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Tusharkanti Behera.
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“We are excited to work with the researchers at EPIC India and help lead Odisha to become a leading data center hub. Using evidence-based research, we hope the DPIC will act as a center of excellence for collecting “big data” from many sources, analyzing that data using contemporary econometric and statistical models, and producing the necessary creative policy guides” OCAC CEO Pattnaik said.
Under this partnership, researchers from the University of Chicago will aid the Government of Odisha in conducting research, monitoring, impact evaluation, and project implementation in the energy and environment, health, education, agriculture, and water & sanitation sectors. Along with that, the partnership will also entail capacity development of personnel and institutions for creating a hub for modern data analysis and knowledge sharing.
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