On October 13, 2022, the President of India Droupadi Murmu inaugurated a supercomputer facility namely ‘Param-Kamrupa’ at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati in Assam.
- This inauguration was made during the President’s two-day visit to Assam on October 13-14, 2022. It is her first visit to Assam since assuming office.
- She was accompanied by Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, Assam Chief Minister (CM) Himanta Biswa Sarma, among others, during inauguration.
About Param-Kamrupa:
It is a state-of-the-art supercomputer set up under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). It will aid in conducting advanced research in various scientific fields including weather and climate, bioinformatics, computational chemistry, molecular dynamics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data science, etc.
Inauguration of SAMEER Laboratory:
She also inaugurated SAMEER (Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research) laboratory at the IIT-Guwahati which will be used for the design and development of high-power microwave passive and active components. It will have critical applications in defence and other sectors.
It should be noted that the Assam government in collaboration with IIT Guwahati is setting up a multispeciality hospital at the IIT Guwahati campus. It will be a hub for advanced training and capacity building for human resources in health care.
Other Initiations:
The President virtually inaugurated/launched/laid the foundation stones of the following projects of Government of Assam.
i.Inauguration of new medical college and hospital at Dhubri
ii.Foundation stone laid for two zonal institutes of National Institute of Virology (NIV) to be set up in Dibrugarh in Assam; and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
iii.Foundation stone laid for 2,000 Anganwadi centres with modern facilities, 100 model Secondary Schools in the tea garden areas of Assam.
iv.Other include launch of Mission Saubhagya; inauguration of Rail-Fed petroleum storage depot of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. at Moinarbond, Silchar; two highway projects and modern Cargo-cum-Coaching Terminal at Aghtori, Guwahati; and flagged off of a train from Guwahati to Lumding upto Shokhuvi (Nagaland) and Mandipathar (Meghalaya).
Points to be noted:
i.IIT Guwahati is the only IIT in the northeast region.
ii.As per NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) India Rankings 2022, IIT Guwahati has been ranked 7th among the Engineering Institutions, and 8th in the Overall category of institutions.
iii.IIT Guwahati also constructed a 3D-printed sentry post for developing cost-effective and sustainable defence infrastructure for the Indian Army.
Recent Related News:
i.Paban Kumar Borthakur, senior IAS officer, took charge as the new Chief
Secretary of Assam. He replaced Jishnu Barua, who retired from service on 31 August 2022.
ii.The World Resource institute (WRI) India in partnership with Assam Energy
Development Agency (AEDA) inaugurated an online based, open source, and interactive Geospatial platform which is referred to as Energy Access Explorer (EAE) for Assam.
About Assam:
National Parks– Kaziranga National Park, Dibru – Saikhowa National Park
Wildlife Sanctuaries– Garampani Wildlife Sanctuary, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary
Tiger Reserves– Manas Tiger Reserve, Nameri Tiger Reserve
