Guwahati, Sept. 19: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal today laid the foundation stone of the Technology Incubation Centre of Guwahati Biotech Park at Amingaon on the outskirts of the city with a view to promote business in biotechnology and allied areas.

The initiative will facilitate faster penetration of biotech industry and accelerate research and development in biotechnology and related fields with effective utilisation of natural resources of the Northeast.

'We have an inherent skill in organic farming. Assam and the Northeast are rich in natural resources and their biodiversity holds potential to capture the markets of the entire Southeast Asia through concentration in the organic sector. Biotechnological interventions can immensely help us in becoming an organic hub,' Sonowal said.

He said a judicious mix of biotechnological know-how and conventional farming would immensely boost the agro-based industry in the state.

The chief minister also spoke about his vision to make Guwahati the gateway to Southeast Asia and various initiatives mooted for materialising the same, including execution of state capital region expanding the radius of Guwahati, and a proposed World Trade Centre in the city.

Science and technology minister Keshab Mahanta said a 64- bigha plot of land has been earmarked to set up a permanent campus of Guwahati Biotech Park at Amingaon, which will be #unique in the entire Northeast. An amount of Rs 35 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of a technology incubation centre and work is expected to complete in 2019.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and director of IIT Guwahati Gautam Biswas also spoke on the occasion. 'To nurture science and biotechnology capabilities we are setting up a technology incubation centre at Guwahati Biotech Park. Honoured to join the foundation laying ceremony,' Sarma tweeted.

Legal adviser to chief minister Santanu Bharali, chief secretary V.K. Pipersenia, additional chief secretary (science and technology) Rajib Kumar Bora, MLAs Suman Haripriya and Nandita Das, Kamrup deputy commissioner Vinod Seshan, who is also the chief executive officer of Guwahati Biotech Park, and others were present in the programme.

Later in the evening, Sonowal also launched e-Prastuti - a process of standardisation of government websites - at a function held at the conference hall of Janata Bhawan. The exercise got under way in June 2015 in view of the facts that in earlier websites citizens' 'needs were not kept in mind, information were not updated, inconsistent interfaces, sites only in English, difficulties for common men to search and get information so on and so forth'. With the launch of e-Prastuti, the number of websites has now gone up to 203 from 29, representing all 54 departments.

Sonowal said, 'Launching e-Prastuti is a way towards rendering good and transparent governance through the digital way to end users, which is the public. It is a mean to achieve a synergised interface between the government and the public and a tool to take governance closer to the public. With e-Prastuti people would be able access all scheme-related information without any interference.'

Congratulating the functionaries on designing e-Prastuti, Sonowal urged them to design a similar medium for bringing in convergence even at the panchayat level so that the people at large can access all information even at the grassroots. He also termed development of e-Prastuti as a way forward to 'Discover Assam'.