Telangana Government bets big on Artificial Intelligence

Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Thursday made a big push towards tapping the ever-growing opportunities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) space by declaring 2020 as the year of AI.

To focus on the new-age technology, it also inked eight memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with various companies, including Intel, Nvidia and Adobe.

Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao who declared 2020 as the 'Year of AI' was present when the MoUs were signed with Intel, Public Health Foundation of India, IIIT- Hyderabad and others. IIIT-H will set up a research centre in applied AI in healthcare and smart mobility.

"In line with our vision and our approach, AI will be our focus for the coming year and beyond. While we are calling 2020 as the 'Year of AI,' our government will set in motion a set of initiatives, which will potentially make the next decade as Telangana's decade of AI.

Telangana is ready to capture the global AI opportunity," the IT Minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India and vice-president of Data Centre Group, Intel Corp, said AI is going to create $13 trillion to the world economy.

US-based tech major NVIDIA will partner with the state government to setup a High-Performance AI Computing (HPAIC) Centre in Telangana.

They will also assist in startup incubation, host AI training sessions to support women & minority groups and organise hackathons among many other things.

IIT-Kharagpur signed an MoU to set up a centre of excellence in AI and research and development park. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT and Industries, said as part of the 'Year of AI', there would be year-long programmes and activities in the emerging technology and some of them are long-term in nature.