A young Tech startup then, Google was launched in the year 1998. A few months later, in 1999, south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh under the chief ministership of Chandrababu Naidu experimented with e-governance by introducing APSWAN (AP State Wide Area Network) which connected capital Hyderabad with district headquarters for effective communication.
CM Naidu has since then been known for leveraging technology for efficient administration as he conducted video conferences with district collectors and senior officials during his term. Two and a half decades later, global tech major Google and its subsidiary YouTube were part of a video conference with Naidu exploring strategic collaborations.
On Tuesday, Naidu, the fourth time CM, virtually interacted with Neal Mohan, Global CEO of YouTube and Sanjay Gupta, President, Asia Pacific region at Google. The idea behind the meeting was to herald a new chapter in the digital journey of the state.
The state government is keen on setting up a YouTube academy in the new capital of the residual state of AP. Both the parties agreed to delve deeper into the opportunity. Apart from that, an MoU is also expected to be signed between the state and the global corporate companies under the initiative of ‘AI for Andhra Pradesh, Powered by Google’. This partnership will help in implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven governance apart from extending AI to fields like agriculture, healthcare, and sustainability, skill development, AI workforce cultivation and MSME.
“Andhra Pradesh is on a trajectory to become India's digital epicenter, and we are enthused about the prospects of partnering with global pioneers like Google and YouTube,” stated Naidu during the meeting.
He later tweeted, “… we explored avenues for providing technical support for the Media City initiative in our capital, Amaravati.”
With the capital project of Amaravati back on track, the TDP government has expedited the developmental work. As a start, the government has officially begun the jungle clearance works that will weed out bushes in the region and the deadline has been 30 days from now. Keeping in mind the recent union budgetary allocations for Amaravati, the government is also moving fast and is looking at different models including Navi Mumbai for replication of ideal urban development designs. The government is also looking to kickstart various infrastructure projects and also hopeful of big investments in the coming future.
