CPPR has undertaken a project titled, “Tech Camp: Navigating Coastal India’s Water Woes” with the support of the US Consulate General, Chennai. The technology camp will provide an avenue for sharing transformative technologies—Artificial Intelligence (AI), bioengineering, automation, digitization, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data—to tackle emerging oceanic environmental issues such as increased oceanic and surface temperatures, rising sea levels, deteriorating marine life, unregulated fishing and marine pollution. The first of its kind in India, the three-day event will have nine international and local experts and 50 participants from the four US consular regions of India convene in the coastal city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, to undergo comprehensive innovation and technology-based workshops, participant-driven sessions and five–six follow-on projects sustained by a robust network of mentors and peers established during the project period. The camp will enable a collaborative and multifaceted approach to enhance awareness about ocean health and sustainability by incorporating participants from diverse domains: academia, policymakers, CSOs and think tanks working on oceanic issues, ocean and environmental activists, social-tech entrepreneurs, and officials from all tiers of governance (Union, State and local). Through these intensive workshops, the participants will be endowed with the know-how of emerging technologies and tools to intercept contemporary issues in oceanic health with an emphasis on the trans-border exchange of knowledge resources to attain ocean resiliency. The project will set the stage for further bilateral cooperation between the United States and India, in achieving the objectives of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, which calls to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.” As oceans are a crucial global resource with a trans-boundary nature, the project could act as a model for regional multilateral cooperation in the Indo–Pacific region, led by the United States and India.

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