PM to address national meet on Monday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a special session of a daylong "national meet" here on Monday, focussing on nine issues including agriculture, energy and environment, infrastructure planning, and water resources.

The meet, being held on promoting space technology-based tools and applications in governance and development, would be inaugurated by NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh and Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha would be the guests of honour at the meet.

Over 1,500 delegates, including central and state ministers, are expected to participate in the meet, the Department of Space said in a statement on Sunday.

Chief secretaries of all states and union territories and functionaries from Department of Space and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would be among other participants at the event.

"The meet will have nine theme sessions--agriculture, energy and environment, infrastructure planning, water resources, technology diffusion, developmental planning, communication and navigation, weather and disaster management,Aand health and education," the statement said.

On June 30, 2014, the prime minister while addressing at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, had urged the Department of Space to pro-actively engage with all stakeholders to maximise the use of space science in governance and development.

During Monday's meet, action plans of various ministries and departments would be deliberated during the meet at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.

Secretaries of central ministries and departments would present joint action plans on effective utilisation of space technology to enhance functional effectiveness, facilitate planning and decision making.