Guwahati (Assam) [India], March 22 (ANI): The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati organized a 'Yuva Sangam' program under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat initiated by the Union Ministry of Education.

The aim of the program was to strengthen people-to-people connect between the youth of the Northeast states with other states of India. Under this program, the youth were given multi-dimensional exposure under five broad areas including - Paryatan (Tourism), Parampara (Traditions), Pragati (Development), Paraspar Sampark (People-to-people connect), Prodvogik (Technology).

IIT Guwahati, as a nodal centre for Assam, hosted 157 student delegates and 10 faculty coordinators from three paired Institutes, namely, IIT Jammu, IIM Bangalore and IIT Gandhinagar.

IIT Guwahati engaged the participants in a carefully prepared five-day program that covered the aspects of Paryatan (Tourism), Parampara (Traditions), Pragati (Development), Paraspar Sampark (People-to-people connect), and Prodvogik (Technology). On day one, the students visited the cultural site of Nilachal Hill and had the opportunity to visit the Sports Authority of India complex at Paltan Bazaar, Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education Sonapur for an interaction session.

They were given the unique opportunity to visit the border village at the Indo-Bhutan border, arranged by Sashastra Seema Bal. The visit helped them to understand the work of our security forces in maintaining a friendly relationship with the neighbouring countries.

The participants were given an opportunity to engage in a buddy program through a visit to the villages at Dhopatari, Silbhoral, and Athyabori. Here, the participants engaged in interaction with the local Assamese people to understand their way of living, food habits and participated in bihu dance with the local youth.

On the third day, the participants had the unique opportunity to interact with the Governor of Assam Gulab Chand Kataria.

The Governor highlighted the role of youth in the country's development and answered all their questions related to development of Assam and the role of youth in Governence.

The participants also visited Urbasi island which has several carvings and inscriptions, an opportunity to understand the cultural heritage of Assam.

On day five, the participants were taken to Sualkuchi where they interacted with the local weavers about the traditional weaving techniques of Assam silk, which is unique to this region.

As a part of this program, IIT Guwahati also coordinated in sending participants and faculty coordinators to five states. Students and faculty coordinators from various colleges/institutions of Assam were sent to IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Jammu, IIM Bangalore, JNU Delhi and NITTTR Chandigarh.

A workshop on Developing Natural Language Processing Tools and Technologies for Languages in North East India was also organized to give a glimpse of how the evolving technologies can be more suitable to restore, translate and communicate the traditional languages of the North East with the rest of the world.

The program culminated with a cultural night where Assamese folk-based dance performances were presented by Angavinoy, a dance school located in Nagaon.

The participants from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka also presented their traditional dances and songs during the program.

During their visit to IIT Guwahati, student delegates from different states received the opportunity to interact and learn not on the Assamese culture but also from each other. (ANI)