The session II held in day 2 focused on “Leveraging frontier technology for transferring data into knowledge.”

Bhubaneswar 23/11/2024:
The two-day workshop on ‘Data Forum-2024 ‘ organized by NITI Aayog with
collaboration of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI),
Government of India and World Bank with support of the Department of Planning and
Convergence, Government of Odisha on 21-22 November, has been concluded successfully
on Friday afternoon, in Bhubaneswar.
The 2nd day session of day 2 which was held on 22nd November, began with the
activity on the subject “Leveraging frontier technology for transferring data into
knowledge”. The session was chaired by Dr, Saurav Garg, Secretary, MoSPI,Govt. of India.
In his key note address Dr. Garg focused about Strengthening of Statistical System and
Infrastructure in different states and availability and use of data in district level as well as in
the state level. Ms. Malar Veerappan, Programme Manager of The World Bank was the
moderator of the Session. In her opening remark she highlighted about “Empowering
districts of fulcrum of growth through localized data-driven decision support system.
Shri Anubhav Singh, Chief Development Officer, Shravati, UP spoke about present
context of Data landscape at the District level and Challenges and Opportunities for
availability of Data. Dr. Dalip Singh, Addl. Director General, Economics
Statistics Division, MoSPI highlighted about “Building and Integrated System of Business
data to Monitor State and District economic growth divers”. Dr. Pratyush Kumar,
Co- founder, Sarvam, AI Spoke on “District as falcrum of growth: unlocking potential of
unstructured data” whereas Dr. Manoranjan Pattanayak, ED, Pricewaterhouse Coopper
presented about “Estimating city-level GDP for monitoring growth in Urban areas” & Dr.

Avik Sarkar, Professor Indian School of Business highlighted about “Using of Alternative
Big Data for Policy Decisions.”

In afternoon, the session III of the Workshop was on discussion about Data systems
for achieving the sustainable development goals. This session was chaired by Smt. Anu
Garg, Development Commissioner & Additional Chief Secretary to Govt of Odisha and
was moderated by Mr. Christopher Garroway, Chief Economist, UN RCO. Mr. Garoway
spoke about Data Systems for Resilient and Sustainable Growth.
In their different presentations on this topic, Dr. Sudeepta Ghosh, Social Statistics

Division, MoSPI, Dr. Pallavi Choudhuri, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, NCAER-
National Data Innovation Centre, Mr, Rajnath Ram, Programme Director(Energy), NITI

Aayog, Dr. Kamal Lochan Mishra, Executive Director, OSDMA, Govt of Odisha focused
on: System of Environmental – Economic Accounting and the SDGs, Improving Gender
Outcomes through Data Driven Policymaking, Towards Sustainable Growth Using Energy
Data, Odisha : Using Data to build State resilience, strengthen disaster risk management
and mitigation respectively.
In Valedictory session Ms. Anna Roy, Principal Economic Advisor, NITI Aayog,
Ms. Ximena V. Del Carpio, Practice Manager, Poverty & Equity Global Practice World
Bank and Dr. Pravakar Sahoo, NITI Aayog gave their concluding remarks and said about
how the outcomes of this workshop–NITI State series-2nd will contribute to meet the
expectations of DATA FORUM 2024 which will ultimately help in development of our
country as well as be valuable input for achieving the SDG goal of UN.
Ms. Shreya Dutta Mishra, Data System Specialist, World Bank co-ordinated in
conducting 1st day and 2nd day sessions of the 2-day programme.
It is noteworthy to mention that the inaugural event of the Workshop held on first
day i.e 21st November, was graced by the Deputy Chief Minister, Odisha Sri K.V. Singh
Deo alongwith presence of Chief Secretary, Odisha Shri Manoj Ahuja and other dignitaries
from NITI Aayog, World Bank and MoSPI. Senior officials from various states, Union
Territories, various departments of the Government of India, academicians etc. in the
workshop participated the two days’ programme.