Andhra Pradesh to Create 'Quantum Valley', A World-class Quantum Computing Hub

Andhra Pradesh is making significant strides in the field of quantum technology. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has announced plans to establish a 'Quantum Valley' in Amaravati, aiming to create a world-class quantum computing hub. This initiative is part of the National Quantum Mission and involves collaboration with prestigious institutions like IIT Madras, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and IBM.

The state government is setting up a task force to drive this effort, with the goal of attracting top-tier talent and global investments. The vision is to position Andhra Pradesh as a national hub for quantum computing research, much like how the state led the Information Technology revolution in the 1990s.

This development is expected to bring revolutionary advancements across various sectors, aligning with the state's focus on emerging technologies and innovation.

The 'Quantum Valley' project is an ambitious initiative by the Andhra Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, to establish a world-class quantum computing hub in Amaravati. This initiative aligns with the National Quantum Mission and aims to position Andhra Pradesh as a leader in quantum technology and deep tech advancements.

Key Collaborations

The project involves collaboration with prestigious institutions and industry leaders, including:

• IIT Madras: Providing academic and research support.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS): Contributing expertise in AI, data science, and cloud-based quantum applications.
• IBM: Driving technological breakthroughs with their research strengths.

Strategic Goals

The primary goals of the 'Quantum Valley' initiative are:

1. Attract Top-Tier Talent: By creating a conducive environment for research and innovation, the project aims to attract top-tier talent from around the world.

2. Global Investments: The initiative seeks to draw significant global investments to foster cutting-edge research and development.

3. Technological Advancements: Focus on advancing quantum computing and deep tech to drive revolutionary advancements across various sectors.

Key Meetings and Stakeholders

A high-level meeting was held to lay the groundwork for the Quantum Computing Hub, attended by notable leaders from industry and academia, including:

• Natarajan Chandrasekaran: Chairman of Tata Sons.
• S.N. Subrahmanyan: Chairman & MD of L&T.
• Prof. Abhay Karandikar: Secretary, Department of Science 77777777and Technology.
• Dr. J.B.V. Reddy: Head of Quantum Technology Centre, DST.
• Prof. Satyanarayana Kalidindi: Director, IIT Tirupati.
• Prof. Kamakoti: Director, IIT Madras.
• Dr. Amith Singhee: Director, IBM Research India.
• Venkat Subramaniam: IBM Quantum India Leader.

Vision and Future Plans

The vision for 'Quantum Valley' is to establish Andhra Pradesh as a national hub for quantum computing research, similar to how the state led the Information Technology revolution in the 1990s. The initiative also includes plans to integrate quantum computing into Amaravati’s technological ecosystem and explore possibilities for research in the field.

Broader Impact

The establishment of 'Quantum Valley' is expected to bring revolutionary advancements across various sectors, including AI, space technology, defense, and energy. The project is part of a broader plan to create a DeepTech Research Park in Amaravati, fostering international collaborations and attracting technology leaders.

Andhra Govt and Tata Exploring Feasibility of TCS Development Centre in Visakhapatnam

The Andhra Pradesh Government and Tata Group are exploring the feasibility of establishing a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) development centre in Visakhapatnam. This initiative aims to boost economic development and enhance air connectivity in the region.

The discussions were led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. They also talked about potential collaborations across various sectors and the formation of a Task Force for Economic Development of Swarna Andhra Pradesh @2047.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu tweeted this after a meeting with Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Board at Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies, in Amaravati on Friday.

This development could bring significant growth and opportunities to Visakhapatnam.

Establishing a TCS development center in Visakhapatnam can bring several benefits. The center can attract investments and boost the local economy by creating job opportunities and supporting local businesses. It can generate numerous jobs for IT professionals, engineers, and support staff, reducing unemployment in the region.

Besides this, the enhancement of the State’s air connectivity with Air India and Vistara, along with the feasibility of collaboration across various sectors was also discussed, the Chief Minister said.

Moreover, Tata Group chairperson Mr. Natarajan Chandrasekaran will be co-chair of a Task Force for Economic Development of Swarna Andhrapradesh @ 2047 which will be formed by Govt of Andhra Pradesh.

Additionally, the Tata Group also agreed to partner in the Centre for Global Leadership on Competitiveness (GLC), which is being set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CCI) in Amaravati.

With $10 Bn Investment, Andhra to have World's 1st 100% Green Data Center Parks

Soon world's first 100% renewable energy powered data center parks will be built in and around Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh (AP) and for same the state government, led by techie chief minister Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Adani Group that would bolster India’s technology infrastructure and boost the concept of green data centres.

Adani group will invest massive US$9.982 billion (Rs 70,000 crore) over the next 20 years to build solar powered data centre parks of up to 5 gigawatts in and around Visakhapatnam, a port city and industrial center in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

This capital of almost $10 billion is Adani group's single largest investment till date and also marks Adani group’s foray into the digital technology infrastructure sector that India is looking to accelerate.

The state government, along with Adani Group will develop the hyper-scale data center market in the state, positioning AP as the east coast data center hub for India and South East Asia, they said. It will also be integrated with a cable landing station that will take advantage of the state’s long coastline to help provide the needed global connectivity and redundancy that the country needs to manage its exponential growth of data.

Notably, this development involving Adani group comes within a month after the group has recently launched Adani Aerospace Park near Shamshabad in Hyderabad. The Aerospace Park is touted as India's first private sector unit for manufacturing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to cater to both the Indian armed forces and the global market.

In line with the State Government’s IT policy and focus on promoting data centers, cloud infrastructure, and allied technology industries as well as renewable energy, the Adani Group will support the development of the digital and energy infrastructure in the state by investing over Rs 70, 000 crore, over a period of 20 years which in turn is expected to create in excess of 100,000 direct and indirect jobs across the state.

The parks shall be developed across three different campuses, with each campus offering complementing value and together providing required redundancy and reliability to Data Center operators. The Data Center parks will be powered with 100 per cent Renewable Energy that will be generated within Andhra Pradesh, thereby accelerating the renewable target goals put forward by the state.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said, “Andhra Pradesh continues to raise the bar and set benchmarks as it strives tirelessly to become one of the top digital destinations in the world. From agriculture to financial markets to smart cities to healthcare, digitization is the future and will soon be a critical component of everything that we do. Efficient and eco-friendly Data Centers are the key to enabling this futuristic digital ecosystem. We are very pleased to see that the Adani Group believes in the vision of Andhra Pradesh as one of the most progressive states in India and hence, has decided to partner with the GoAP on this exciting journey.”

N Lokesh, who is the IT Minister of Andhra Pradesh, said, “All the next generation technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, big data, image processing are changing the world around us and driving innovation in every single activity we do. Complementing the mobile revolution that we are witnessing, India needs data storage, data processing and data networking. This is precisely why the partnership between the GoAP and Adani Group is critical to lay the foundation of a digital revolution that every citizen and every business can benefit from."

A green data center, or sustainable data center, is a type of server facility that utilizes energy efficiency technologies. These data centers do not contain obsolete systems such as inactive or underused servers, and instead take advantage of newer and more efficient technologies.

Source - Indian Express

India’s First AI University To Come Up At Amaravati With Finland's Support

India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) University would be set up at futuristic capital coming up at Amaravati with the support of Finland. The AI University will train youngsters on the latest technologies to make a mark all over the world.

This announcement was made by Andhra Pradesh Real Time Governance CEO Ahmed Babu on the sidelines of second day of CII Partnership Summit held at Visakhapatnam.

The university proposed at Amaravati will also have R&D lab as well as an incubation centre for startups. The State Government has already announced sanction of a fund of Rs. 100 crore to encourage innovative projects

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that for AI University at Amaravati the state government were planning to allot 40 to 50 acres. The university would be operational by March, 2019, he disclosed.

The proposed AI university will be developed by Finland's Satakunta Uinversity of Applied Sciences (SAMK), a world class university at Pori city of Finland.

The Pori AI campus and SAMK AI and Robotics Programme have 5,000 students with 1,000 early stage companies in AI and robotics as part of studies. It offers micro competencies-based access between talent seeking and offering. The Pori AI campus has its own commercial grade airport including a drone development programme. It has plans for collaboration in China, India and Argentina.

The above news was first reported in The Hindu.

Last week only, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) in Mumbai, which is said to be the first research institute in India that is dedicated towards finding AI solutions for social good.

Prior to that, Telangana state government has also announced that it will establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Hyderabad, in association with IT industry's apex body NASSCOM.

Additionally, tech giant Adobe has also announced to establish an AI Lab in Hyderabad.

Maharashtra state government has too announced to bring India’s first artificial intelligence centre in alliance with Canadian government.

India’s First AI University To Come Up At Amaravati With Finland's Support

India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) University would be set up at futuristic capital coming up at Amaravati with the support of Finland. The AI University will train youngsters on the latest technologies to make a mark all over the world.

This announcement was made by Andhra Pradesh Real Time Governance CEO Ahmed Babu on the sidelines of second day of CII Partnership Summit held at Visakhapatnam.

The university proposed at Amaravati will also have R&D lab as well as an incubation centre for startups. The State Government has already announced sanction of a fund of Rs. 100 crore to encourage innovative projects

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that for AI University at Amaravati the state government were planning to allot 40 to 50 acres. The university would be operational by March, 2019, he disclosed.

The proposed AI university will be developed by Finland's Satakunta Uinversity of Applied Sciences (SAMK), a world class university at Pori city of Finland.

The Pori AI campus and SAMK AI and Robotics Programme have 5,000 students with 1,000 early stage companies in AI and robotics as part of studies. It offers micro competencies-based access between talent seeking and offering. The Pori AI campus has its own commercial grade airport including a drone development programme. It has plans for collaboration in China, India and Argentina.

The above news was first reported in The Hindu.

Last week only, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) in Mumbai, which is said to be the first research institute in India that is dedicated towards finding AI solutions for social good.

Prior to that, Telangana state government has also announced that it will establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Hyderabad, in association with IT industry's apex body NASSCOM.

Additionally, tech giant Adobe has also announced to establish an AI Lab in Hyderabad.

Maharashtra state government has too announced to bring India’s first artificial intelligence centre in alliance with Canadian government.

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh is contemplating on cloning Kerala's much famous Startup Village. The village is credited with being the country’s first telecom business incubator where hundreds and technology enthusiasts and students head to with their bag of innovative and fresh ideas.

A team of officials headed by J Satyanarayana, the information and technology advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government made a visit to the Silicon Valley styled village in the previous week in order to get firsthand knowledge and understanding about the functioning of the exclusive zone of innovators.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is planning on setting up the startup zone in the city of Vishakhapatnam. He is also thinking of forming an innovation fund in order to create an innovative ecosystem.

The government aims at achieving IT investments worth $2 billion in the time period of three years and electronics investments worth $5 billion. It even has plans of offering gigabit broadband connectivity to every village by 2020. The government further has goals of setting up IT parks in Vijayawada, Kakinada, Chittoor and Anantapur.

Meanwhile, people at Startup Village are proud and happy that the country’s first public-private technology business incubator is gaining popularity and encouraging other states to have such an ecosystem for themselves too.

The team from Andhra had a detailed discussion with the Startup Village’s chief executive officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and Hrishikesh Nair, head at Infopark, which is a state run IT industry destination in the city. In the meeting, the team from Andhra asked for their help and support for setting up a similar facility in Andhra Pradesh.

According to J Satyanarayana, the Andhra government is thoroughly impressed by the Kerala Startup Village and aims at setting up an incubation facility of similar kind. The government is in touch with the team from Startup village for the same.  This step taken by the government is a part of the process of gearing up its IT policy in order to attract more entrepreneurs, investors and startups.

Ajay Sawhney, principal secretary to the chief minister; Sanjay Jaju, the information technology and communications secretary and experts from the consultancy firm Ernst & Young ,were also the part of the Andhra Pradesh delegation that visited Kerala.

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh is contemplating on cloning Kerala's much famous Startup Village. The village is credited with being the country’s first telecom business incubator where hundreds and technology enthusiasts and students head to with their bag of innovative and fresh ideas.

A team of officials headed by J Satyanarayana, the information and technology advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government made a visit to the Silicon Valley styled village in the previous week in order to get firsthand knowledge and understanding about the functioning of the exclusive zone of innovators.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is planning on setting up the startup zone in the city of Vishakhapatnam. He is also thinking of forming an innovation fund in order to create an innovative ecosystem.

The government aims at achieving IT investments worth $2 billion in the time period of three years and electronics investments worth $5 billion. It even has plans of offering gigabit broadband connectivity to every village by 2020. The government further has goals of setting up IT parks in Vijayawada, Kakinada, Chittoor and Anantapur.

Meanwhile, people at Startup Village are proud and happy that the country’s first public-private technology business incubator is gaining popularity and encouraging other states to have such an ecosystem for themselves too.

The team from Andhra had a detailed discussion with the Startup Village’s chief executive officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and Hrishikesh Nair, head at Infopark, which is a state run IT industry destination in the city. In the meeting, the team from Andhra asked for their help and support for setting up a similar facility in Andhra Pradesh.

According to J Satyanarayana, the Andhra government is thoroughly impressed by the Kerala Startup Village and aims at setting up an incubation facility of similar kind. The government is in touch with the team from Startup village for the same.  This step taken by the government is a part of the process of gearing up its IT policy in order to attract more entrepreneurs, investors and startups.

Ajay Sawhney, principal secretary to the chief minister; Sanjay Jaju, the information technology and communications secretary and experts from the consultancy firm Ernst & Young ,were also the part of the Andhra Pradesh delegation that visited Kerala.