India has a significant population of youth. In Rajasthan, 31% of the population is between the age of 18-35 years. Meeting their aspirations is a challenge for the Government and also a demographic dividend, waiting to be harnessed. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje realizes that if livelihoods, shelter and food for all have to be ensured, sustainable solutions based on strong scientific foundations fleshed out by the numerous facets that make up the world of knowledge have to be found. After the greatly revered Festival of Education held last month, Rajasthan is witnessing yet another young fest – the Rajasthan Digifest. The Rajasthan Digifest seems to be another chain-link in the series of youth-oriented events in Rajasthan. Happening in the education capital Kota on the 17th -19th of August, the Digifest is a brainchild of CM Raje and her Department of Information and Technology, of which she is also the minister in charge.
Youth & Technology – the ideal setup
In this technology driven world that we live in, the importance of technical learning cannot be exaggerated. As populations grow and per capita resource availability shrinks, the fruits of technology and medicine shall act as balancing forces to ensure the continuance of human race. Under such a premise, it is for imperative for the Government to create more and more platforms for technical learning. Rajasthan’s vibrant eGovernance ecosystem offers a huge potential for youth to engage with the Government as implementation partners. The events Digifest and Startup fest are proving to be a channel for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s Government to channelize the millennials’ out-of-the-box-thinking and bring about ideas for building futuristic solutions.
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Tech-Talks
The first day of the event shall see the keynote address on the Rajasthan Be Here, Startup followed by a talk on Re-imagining Entrepreneurship to be moderated by Prajakt Raut with Abhishek Kakkar (91 Springboard), Arun Vaish (BITS Pilani), Devendra Agarwal (Dexter Capital), Muthu Singaram (IIT Madras healthcare accelerator) and Kalpana Gupta (Punjab National Bank). The next session ‘Rajasthan Speaks’ would be taken up by Rajendra Mhalsekar from YES Bank with Rahul Das from Fourth Ambit, Filmmakers Shilpi Batra Adwani & Hitesh Adwani, Data Infosys CEO Ajay Data, Anurag Jain from CarDekho, Srimathy Kesan from Spaze Kids and Communication Specialist Bharathi Sinha. Possibilities for Startups in Specialised sectors would be discussed in the Sunrise Startups session. The Digital Rajasthan Springboard event will see the launch of Rajasthan Stack, Challenge for Change, StartUp platform and StartUp Ranking System, Hackathon Award Ceremony and finish with the dedication of Kota Clean Energy Network by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Government in my Hands
Encompassing Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje’s vision of maximum governance and minimum government, the State has leveraged information technology to place services in the hands of the residents. The Digital Rajasthan walkthrough has been designed to take the delegates and visitors through the entire spectrum of initiatives taken by the Government to make the lives of the citizens easy and efficient.
Rajasthan Hackathon
An event unique in its own self, the Rajasthan Hackathon is a single phase Hackathon for presenting hacks on Rajasthan’s E-governance initiatives, open for students, IT companies, entrepreneurs, and start-ups. Teams shall be working on their projects in the presence of mentors, jury and judges and winners will be given an opportunity to work on live projects of Government of Rajasthan.
Rajasthan Digifest Schedule to keep up your abreast of the latest happenings at the grand ‘Digital Festival’ being held in Kota. Check the Rajasthan Digifest Schedule below.
