Govt of Telangana Project Conferred with Gold Icon at Digital India Awards 2022

Government of Telangana is pleased to announce that their project Smart Nutrient Management of Soil has won the Gold Icon Award at the Digital India Awards 2022 in the category “Digital Initiatives in collaboration with Start-ups”. This category has been introduced in the Digital India Awards for the 1st time.

The Government of India has envisioned the Digital India Awards to encourage and honour innovative digital initiatives by government entities at all levels. It aims to recognize and award the best grassroots level digital initiatives in fulfilling the Digital India vision.
Under the category “Digital Initiatives in collaboration with Start-ups” Digital India Program has identified and conferred the awards to the projects that displayed excellence by Government Entities in collaboration with Start-ups for enhancement or transformation of digital governance, improving the experience of digital services and digital empowerment of citizens i.e., fulfilling Digital India Vision.

The award was conferred by the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu in the presence of the Hon’ble Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Communications and Railways, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Smt. L. Rama Devi, Director of Emerging Technologies Wing, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department along with Mr. Sudheer Kumar Jindam, Senior Consultant, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department and Mr. Sandeep Kondaji, CEO & Co-Founder Krishitantra attended the Digital India Awards Ceremony to receive the Gold Icon on behalf of the Government of Telangana
ITE&C Department and Agriculture Department, Government of Telangana along with Krishitantra have built a completely automated portable soil testing solution named Krishi RASTAA- Rapid Automated Soil Testing with Agronomy Advisory. Krishi RASTAA provides soil reports to farmers in 30 minutes and issues advisories to farmers on the optimum use of fertilizers and micronutrients. These reports and advisories are made available in 3 languages – Telugu, English and Hindi. This project was executed by Krishitantra under the guidance and mentorship of ICAR IIRR. The soil advisory analysis done under this project facilitates efficient use of farming inputs thus increasing production and income while lowering soil degradation. The agronomy advisory that comes post the soil analysis coupled with the precise dosage of agrochemicals as suggested in the advisory is the one of way forward in the context of a climate sensitive future. It helps the farmers to reduce input use by helping with the right quantity of nutrients. This ultimately decreases water consumption, unnecessary fertilizer use, soil degradation and water contamination.

Shri. K.T Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, MA&UD, and Industries, Government of Telangana said, “Government of Telangana has always been in the forefront of enabling and driving the use of frontier technologies in several sectors. Emerging Technologies Wing has been crucial in the acceleration and adoption of technologies, especially AI and Cloud in the state. Together these technologies become a powerful tool to bring transformation while impacting lives at scale.”

Shri. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary ITE&C and Industries, Government of Telangana said, “In the true spirit of open innovation and collaboration, Government of Telangana has been working with several start-ups in various domains including but not limited to agriculture, healthcare, Environment, Mobility, etc to encourage the adoption of transformative tech-based solutions which are designed to impact our people and planet positively.

Shri. Raghunandan Rao, Secretary, Agriculture & Co-Operation Department, Government of Telangana said,” Healthy soil provides many functions that support plant growth, including nutrient cycling, biological control of plant pests, and regulation of water and air supply. Soil testing labs can help farmers understand these nuances about their farm soil to better plan their agriculture. But, in India there are very few soil testing labs. However, Government of Telangana has taken this initiative to tackle this challenge and help farmers with robust soil testing reports and advisories. The state if fully committed to adoption of new age technologies to support the agriculture sector and this is a step in the same direction”