Organisations need to undertake efforts to harness Power of Technology says Hardeep S Puri

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Speaking at the interactive session on “Nourishing the Food System” at the India Economic Summit 2017 organized by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 5 October in New Delhi, Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries, stressed on the importance of technological innovations in the food industry. “Technological innovations play a very important role in addressing key issues like ensuring that there is less wastage, better hygienic food availability, addressing farmers’ distress and creating more jobs,” she said. The Minister outlined the Government’s recent technological initiatives like eNAM, or electronic agricultural market, and special Soil Health card schemes for farmers. She noted that Industry needs to partner with farmers in bringing latest technology to improve farm productivity. Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, said that India’s massive food wastage can be avoided if innovative agri technologies can be brought to farmers. On the question of developing incentives for all stakeholders, he said that both the State government and the Central Government will have to offer incentives to the corporate sector as well as work in tandem in PPP mode so that new technologies can be brought to farmers to improve farm productivity and also increase farmers’ income. Mr. Amit Mehra, Founder, Reuters Market Light said the biggest challenge for a start-up in this space is to have a sustainable business model for the long term as the end customers are small farmers. “To get the farmers to try even one new service is a big barrier. The Government needs to create awareness about new products and also incentivize the private sector to offer these," he suggested. Mr. Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestle India, talked about Nestle’s renewed focus on wellness food and food enriched with nutrition and health-benefits. The recently launched Nestle Food Safety Institute in Manesar will conduct training programmes on food safety management systems, testing methods and regulatory standards, he said. Mr. Jai Shroff, Global Chief Executive Officer, UPL said that while there are technologies available for increasing farm productivity, there are no technologies available for increasing farmers’ income and that can only be done by helping farmers connect with the right value chains.
India would be 50% urban by 2030 Hardeep Puri-indian Bureaucracy

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Hon’ble Minister of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs, has urged that all our organisations should undertake efforts to identify more and more activities to be automated and free of human interface.  “The power of technology is immense and there is no reason that India, which has a formidable capacity in the area of software technologies, cannot harness this strength to our advantage”, he added.  He was speaking at the launch of e-Dharti Geo portal here today in the presence of Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and senior officers of the Ministry. The Minister launched the service to provide Property Certificate by Land & Development Office (L&DO) through e-Dharti Geo Portal. The certificate includes property details; viz. land type, property type, date of allotment, property status, sub-type, plot area, date of execution of lease deed, property address, details about present lessee, litigation status, as well as cadastral map. The Property Certificate will be available on nominal fee of ₹1,000/- and can be accessed by public by visiting the L&DOwebsite: www.ldo.gov.in. Shri Puri complimented Dr. Neeta Verma, DG,NIC for bringing out this portal.

​ Through the Certificate, the lessee of the property will be able to get the basic details of his/her property alongwith map showing its location. This measure will also help a prospective purchaser to ascertain the details of the property as well as any suit or proceeding is pending in respect of the property. This situation is a major source of litigation in the sale and purchase of property. This measure while benefitting the general public, particularly old aged, ailing and as well as women & widows, will also help in avoiding unnecessary litigations.

​L&DO is integrating GIS based mapping of individual properties with e-DhartiGeo Portal to make property details GIS enabled. L&DO is dealing with approx. 60,000 properties, which include commercial, residential, industrial & institutional properties. Of the 60,000 properties, 49,000 are rehabilitation properties which were given on leases to persons displaced from erstwhile East & West Pakistan.Majority of properties, had been digitally mapped and are in process of validation. This application will not only benefit the public but also the Government in getting to know the actual status of its vacant properties whether there is any encroachment on the said property, etc.

​L&DO, as part of its initiative to bring about transparency in its working, as well as obviate human interface and restrict time frame in disposal of cases, is fastmoving towards digitization of its processes and had already started to accept online applications for substitution, mutation, conversion, gift permission, sale permission & mortgage permission. These applications cover almost 95% of total applications received by L&DO. Besides L&DO has taken a unique initiative to update land records of freehold property.  Presently, property records are not updated, once the tenure of the property is converted from lease hold to free hold.  This measure will help in updating the records of land-owning agency as well as give title to the present owner besides bringing about transparency and predictability in property transactions. The initiative taken by L&DO will go a long way in streamlining its working and make it more public friendly, accountable, efficient and transparent.

​The Minister also distributed Property Certificate to the applicants through virtual conference. The applicants thanked the Hon’ble Minister under whose guidance L&DO has taken the initiative to digitize its services and issuance of Property Certificate.  The applicant appreciated the initiative as a real public centric approach by a public authority which while being a public welfare measure will give them record of their property which in normal circumstances is very difficult to access.

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