NewzVille Desk
Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under the aegis of Ministry of Communications, Government of India hosted the Second meeting of the UN Global Initiative on AI for Agri-Food Systems (GI-AI4FS) alongside India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026.
The meeting was jointly hosted with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
The GI-AI4FS is a UN Global Initiative, coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in close collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP).
Around 70 delegates were participated from around the world, in-person and 25 participants online, bringing together representatives of international organisations, government departments, agricultural research institutions, academia, industry and standards development organisations to advance global cooperation on the application of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture and food systems.
The inaugural session commenced with opening remarks by Dr. Sebastian Bosse, Chair of GI-AI4FS, followed by keynote addresses by Krishnan Pallassana, Senior Specialist – Strategy, Innovation & Partnerships, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Dr. Bilel Jamoussi, Deputy Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), ITU; Dr. A. K. Nayak, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare; Syed Tausif Abbas, Senior Deputy Director General & Head, TEC, DoT, India.
