Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government in technical collaboration with the University of Chicago is going to set up a Data Policy Innovation Centre (DPIC) in the State.

At a high-level meeting chaired by chief secretary Asit Tripathy, the State agriculture principal secretary Sourabh Garg outlined the utility of a DPIC for State like Odisha. The theme expert and South Asia director, energy policy institute at the University of Chicago, Dr. Anant Sudarshan, presented different contours of DPIC with its technical and application possibilities.

The meeting gave in principal approval for use of Big Data in formation of innovative policies and service delivery.

The DPIC can serve as a centre of excellence for accumulation of big data from different sources through cutting-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence, analysing it with using modern econometrics and statistical models and come out with innovative police guidelines. It can create a frame work for collaborative work between departments and faculty of Chicago University on select policy areas to design new solutions and evaluate its field outcome.

Development commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, agriculture production commissioner Pradipta Mohapatra, finance principal secretary Ashok Meena, school and mass education principal secretary Chitra Arumgam, electronics and IT secretary Manoj Mishra were present.