President asks IIT-Guwahati to find solutions for natural calamities

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday asked the IIT Guwahati to provide technological solutions to help Northeast prevent the recurring natural calamities in the region.

"Since it is the only IIT in the Northeastern region, it has the responsibility of nurturing other institutions in the region, work with state government and defence forces, provide technological solutions to the region to prevent natural calamities from recurring,” Murmu said after inaugurating Param Kamrupa, a super computer system and Sameer, a laboratory at IIT Guwahati.

The 838 Teraflops Param Kamrupa is a state-of-the-art supercomputer facility set up under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) - a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

"I am confident that the Super Computer PARAM-KAMRUPA facility inaugurated at IIT Guwahati will be put to use in the best possible manner to broaden our understanding and knowledge on various technological topics. The SAMEER laboratory will enable research and development assisted critical applications in defence sector and other industries," Murmu said.

"With this facility, IIT Guwahati will be able to carry out research activities in various scientific domains such as weather and climate, Bioinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Molecular Dynamics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Data Science and others," the IITG said in a statement.

The President also inaugurated Dhubri Medical College in Assam and regional centres of the National Institute of Virology at Dibrugarh in Assam and at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Professor T.G. Sitharam, director of IIT Guwahati, while welcoming the President said, “With the inauguration of multiple research and medical facilities today, Assam and IIT Guwahati have taken a great leap on healthcare and research fronts. IIT Guwahati is tirelessly working towards assisting the government of Assam in defence, healthcare, disaster management, skill development, promoting women in research and development, and entrepreneurship sectors, among others.”

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, ministers, students, beside others attended the function.

Murmu is on a four-day visit to Tripura and Assam. The President on Friday will inaugurate the first direct train service between Nagaland and Meghalaya via Assam.