The Odisha government on Saturday partnered with the University of Chicago Trust, India to set up a data, policy, and innovation centre (DPIC) in the city. The collaboration will enable rigorous, evidence-based governance while using new advances in econometrics, data science, and machine learning. As part of the agreement, researchers from the University of Chicago will provide data analysis and evaluation assistance to the state government schemes and policies to benefit the districts and blocks. They will aid the government in conducting research, monitoring, impact evaluation and project implementation in the energy and environment, health, education, agriculture, and water and sanitation sectors.

CEO of Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) Manoj Kumar Pattnaik said the partnership with the researchers of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India) will help lead Odisha to become a leading data centre hub.

“We hope the DPIC will act as a centre of excellence for collecting big data from many sources, analysing that data using contemporary econometric and statistical models and producing the necessary creative policy guides,” he said.