Data analytics, predictive analysis helped north east states fight against Covid-19

The east zone webinar on “Big Data and the Big Fight”, organised by Express Computer in association with SAS was held on July 23, 2020 which saw eminent speakers from east and north east states sharing their experience of handling the pandemic.

The webinar is aimed at understanding the best practices of various states and how they are handling Covid-19 pandemic to prevent spread of the deadly disease.

The webinar’s Keynote Speaker, Mrinalini Shrivastava, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Sikkim said the state had detected virus presence in January and started efforts to strengthen healthcare infrastructure. She said Sikkim had stopped issuing inner line permits to foreigners in February and ensured the border remained sealed to prevent spread of the virus.

Shrivastava highlighted that Sikkim’s citizens were thoroughly disciplined in following norms which helped the government since the early days of the detection of the virus.

She stated that the government of Sikkim had created a website to manage the movement of migrants, quarantine facilities and trace their health records. The use of advanced technologies and data analysis proved to be a good aid in the times of the pandemic.

The government of Sikkim is leveraging predictive analytics to train the end users about the Covid-19 situation, she informed.

“We have sealed our borders to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Fortunately, Sikkim does not have any cases in the rural parts. The government has been actively disseminating crucial information to people living in the last mile of the society,” she mentioned.

Shrivastava concurred that the north east states face major connectivity issues for which efforts are being made to further strengthen it in the coming few months.

Meanwhile, Ram Kumar S, Joint Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department and Mission Director, NHM, Government of Meghalaya talked about using data analytics and other emerging tech tools to trace Covid-19 patients and mitigate the risk of the virus in the state.

He said the government of Meghalaya has created a web-app to track the migrants and has launched a behaviour change application in collaboration with NIC which is available in three languages of the state.

He underlined that data analytics and predictive analytics can bring a boom in the Covid-19 fight.

The Meghalaya government is creating an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for better visibility and to reduce the cost. Technology is being extensively to manage the changed behaviour of the people.

Radhakrishna B, Director– Fraud Management & Security Intelligence Practice from SAS Institute (India) Pvt Ltd gave a presentation titled “Data to Decisions: Covid-19 Response”.

He spoke about the collaboration with the state governments and the Centre for social benefits, emergency program delivery and population movement analysis.

Radhakrishna B said, ”It is important to have data organised at multiple locations for useful insights and predict the various stages of the virus.”

In the panel discussion titled, “The role of tech tools to fight against Covid-19 pandemic and the road ahead”, senior government officials from Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam shared their perspectives on adoption of emerging technologies and how technology aided the government in their fight against the pandemic.

Ravi Shankar Shukla, Mission Director, NHM, Government of Jharkhand said, ”We are leveraging data analytics to identify high risk factors. Clinical staff and public service workers should be well versed with the technologies implemented.”

Mahendra Kumar Yadava, Managing Director, Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd, Government of Assam said, “The state has implemented digital portals, call centres and aggressively collaborated with the private partners to handle the Covid-19 situation.”

Whereas Sanjay Kumar Das, Joint Secretary, Department of IT, Government of West Bengal said, “The government of West Bengal has implemented a state workforce tracker for IT/ ITeS to encourage a collaborative approach between jobseekers and employers.”