2 Indian techies in US create India's first SmartGaon: Modi
New Delhi, July 29 : Indians abroad are still emotionally attached to their ancestral village, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday citing the example of two Indian IT professionals in the US who have developed the 'SmartGaon' mobile app that connects the village internally and with the wider world.
In his Mann Ki Baat radio address, Modi made a reference to Yogesh Sahu and Rajnish Bajpai, the developers of SmartGaon, which also serves as a one-stop information centre and a marketplace for farmers.
"It so happened that once I was interacting with Indian youth in San Jose town of America hailed as a technology hub and I appealed to those young people to think over how could they use their talent for India's benefit," he said.
"The SmartGaon app is not only connecting the villagers with the whole world but now they can obtain any information on their own mobile phones. Residents of the village Taudhakpur in Rae Bareilly, the village chief, District Magistrate, CDO and every one joined in to create awareness amongst the masses."
Taudhakpur has become the India's first SmartGaon village. It has CCTV cameras, public address systems, street lights, regular health check-up events, almost uninterrupted power supply and also a Wifi zone.
All initiatives undertaken in the village are updated, recorded, tracked and monitored on the app.
The app has other key features such as a villagers' directory, news and events calendar, health and information centre. Besides, the app's Gram mart feature has created a popular marketplace for farm produce.
"This app is actually bringing in a digital revolution in the village," Modi said.
The US-based Sahu and Bajpai are currently involved in carrying forward the project to six more villages in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13; body of last missing person recovered
Jabalpur (PTI): The bodies of a five-year-old boy and his uncle were recovered from Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 13, police said.
The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
"The bodies of Mayuram (5) and his uncle Kamraj (around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, were found floating and were fished out of the dam," Bargi Sub Divisional Officer of Police Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI over the phone.
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All 13 missing persons identified have now been accounted for, he said, adding the bodies were sent to a government hospital for postmortem.
Teams comprising around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, along with personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were involved in the search operation, the police said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, according to the police.
The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, though the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
