“Like smart city initiative there is an utmost need to come up with smart village concept to make India a super power,” said Dr Bhimaaraya Metri, Director, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur (IIMN) here on Saturday. Dr Metri made this statement during the inauguration of 10th edition of Global Nagpur Summit and the ‘Social Conference’ conducted by Nagpur First with a theme “Towards Resilient Rurban Economy” on Saturday at IIM Nagpur in MIHAN. “In recent time the rural population is going down and it is shifting in urban areas. Adoption of smart village and smart agriculture concept is the only way out to restrict this trend,” said Dr Metri. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Government of India is getting success to boost the rural economy in last few years.

 

However, more impetus needed to make every village a smart village in the country,” he added. Anshul Sonak, Global Director, Intel USA, who also belongs to Bhandara district, talked about his life journey during his speech. Sonak said, “Today, in India, everyone is consuming technology but very few are doing something creative with the help of technology. If we have to become a super power in thw world then we have to be creative.” Intel’s Global Director said, “Green skill is a new concept in the world but it is the future. We have to understand the scope of green and carbon skills to make future better. Even the global companies has now accepted this fact and acting to boost green skills.” Anoop Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Co-operation, Marketing and Textile Department, Government of Maharashtra was the guest of honur of the programme.

 

Anoop Kumar talked about the Nagpur First initiative and appreciated all work done by this initiative in last 10 years. Pavitra Y S, CEO, Vindhya e-infomedia; Shashank Rao, Global Chair, Nagpur; Prashant Mishra, Director, Click2Cloud; Samir Bendre, Chief of Operations, Persistent Systems; Amitab Khanna, Global Nagpur Summit Chair; and Tanveer Mirza, India Chair shared the dais during the event. Satendra Ghiye of Solar Khadi Mahila Samiti Amravati shared the impact story on “Solar Khadi and Green Fab”. Success story of micro business by De Asra Foundation delivered by Vaishali Aparajit during the event. Cheques of Rs 35 lakh and Rs 25 lakh to six startups were distributed under “The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme”. A coffee table book was also released during the event. ‘Change Maker Awards’ were also distributed during the event. The event concluded with an exhibition.