Professor Jonathan Fleming, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA has appreciated the efforts of the Government of India and remarkable achievements in women empowerment. While interacting with the Namo Drone Didis at ICAR Pusa campus in New Delhi today, he said he was excited to see how India is using technology for women empowerment and such initiative is an inspiration for not only women in rural areas of India, but also in other countries who can learn from this concept.  Prof. Fleming was highly impressed by the process of training and benefits the women getting from the use of latest technology in India.

    The Drone Didis explained to the visiting professor about the efforts of the Government of India to enable them to use drone technology and providing financial assistance to become Drone Didis. While interacting with Prof. Jonathan Fleming, Didis told how using Drone is helping them spray fertilizers and pesticides in dense crops where manual spraying has been a big challenge. They also told that they feel proud to be called as Drone Didis and their financial condition has improved significantly. The Didis mentioned that Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is a great visionary and he has brought a great scheme for them.

 

    Prof. Jonathan also visited the Drone Robotic and Machine Learning Centre of IRAI, where he was showcased different types of drones developed by the institute and how they are making difference in the traditional farming with the use of technology. Dr. Ravi Sahoo, Principal Scientist, Division of Agricultural Physics, IRAI, New Delhi briefed him about Drone journey of India and explained to him on how India is integrating the indigenous knowledge and modern technology to reform the agriculture sector which is the backbone of Indian Economy and social system. Professor Jonathan found this technological development very interesting and said that India is not only transforming the present agriculture system but also investing in the future.

  Namo Drone Didi scheme was briefed to the visiting professor by Mr. Raman Wadhwa, Deputy Director, National Rural Livelihoods Mission. Four Namo Didis namely Ms. Gita, Ms. Sita, Ms. Priyanka, and Ms. Hemlata made a live demonstration of spraying by the Drone in the fields of IARI campus before the US dignitary.

      Later speaking to the media, Professor Jonathan Fleming said 100 percent beneficiaries of the Drone incentive scheme in the USA are men, while in India it’s totally opposite as all the beneficiaries are women which is a great example of how India is using technology for empowerment of women. “I am going back to my country with so many positive messages for my government from my wonderful experiences in India”, he said.

 

 

     Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, Senior Scientist, Division of Agricultural Physics, IARI, New Delhi along with his team of scientist, Shri SB Pawar from Ministry of Agriculture, Shri Bibhu and Shri Arvind from NRLM, several officials from IFFCO, officials from states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh State Livelihood Missions were also present on this occasion.

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MG/RN/KSR

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