CPR and CSH are pleased to invite you to a digital workshop on Data, Disease and Delivery: How did cities use data to manage the pandemic and provide relief?
Speakers:
- Anita Kane, Senior Advisor, Pune Knowledge Cluster
- Jigar Patel, City Data Officer, Surat Municipal Corporation
- Veerendra Kumar Shakya, City Data Officer, Gwalior Smart city
The session will be online via Zoom. Kindly register here. It will also be live-streamed on the CPR India Facebook page.
If there is an issue, please email urbanization@cprindia.org
About the talk
During the past year, COVID-19 was a major governance challenge for cities. During the initial lockdown and to a lesser extent over time, there was significant disruption to the city’s economies which affected the ability of various residents to earn a livelihood, especially in the informal sector. As the lockdown and travel restrictions were eased the pandemic took hold and concomitantly the challenge of managing the spread of disease became a major focus area for city governments. In the smart cities, before the pandemic started, cities had begun to use data to improve their governance capacity. The pandemic and its twin problems presented them with the challenge of using these data capabilities to respond. This panel will discuss how the cities responded and in particular (a) the use of data in the disease management of the pandemic, (b) the use of data in the relief response to the pandemic and finally, (c) the learning from the use of data during the past year for overall city management in the future.
About the speakers
Anita Kane is currently a Senior Advisor with the Pune Knowledge Cluster (www.pkc.org.in), which is a project established by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India aiming to bring together industry, academia and R&D institutions to address the challenging problems faced by the region through the use of innovative means and application of scientific methods. In this role Anita is responsible to guide the programs of the PKC in the areas of environment, health, Big Data & Artificial Intelligence. Previously, Ms Kane was a Principal Consultant at TCS from where she retired recently. She has an overall experience of 35+ years in various capacities in the Information Technology field. She has worked in the Industry, Government as well as academic and research institutions. From 2017 to 2019, Anita was deputed as the City Data Officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and was reporting to the Municipal Commissioner of Pune. This role was facilitated by Tata Trusts.
Jigar Patel is currently working as Assistant Engineer in the IT Department of Surat Municipal Corporation. He has been an active member of Smart City mission IT project implementation team at Surat since 2011, with key responsibilities for monitoring and managing software application development and finalising software requirements for applications. He has completed various smart cities projects like Command-and-Control Center (SMAC Center), Smart Solid Waste Management System, Vector-borne Disease Control System Application, MySurat Citizen Engagement Portal and App, Smart Feedback devices for Swachh Bharat Mission at Surat, etc. Actively involved in implementation of ERP & ICCC projects at Surat. Recently, he has conceptualised and steered the development of the COVID-19 Tracking and Management system in record time, which helped the city to contain the disease to a greater extent. He is also the City Data Officer for Surat City under Smart City Mission Data Smart Cities Strategy.
Veerendra Kumar Shakya is currently working with Gwalior Smart City as a Computer Programmer & City Data Officer. He has twelve years of experience working in the Government IT Sector, having expertise of data-centre management, designing and development of complex applications, and data analytics. Earlier he had designed applications for Gwalior Police, BSF, Gwalior Municipal Corporation related to property tax collection, water bill, all types of citizen certificates, registrations, grievance processing applications as well as developed applications to conduct various surveys under Swachh Bharat Mission etc. Recently, during COVID-19 pandemic he has designed and developed several applications and performed data analytics activities in co-ordination with Gwalior city administration.
