Telangana inks MoU with Illinois for cooperation in various fields

Telangana and Illinois in the United States on Monday signed an MoU for cooperation in various fields, including smart state solutions, e-governance, entrepreneurship, innovation, business incubators, job creation and best practices.

Under the smart state solutions, Illinois will introduce "Array of Things" sensors for monitoring air pollution in Telangana.

Telangana's Principal Secretary (Industries and Commerce) Arvind Kumar signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Chicago with Hardik Bhatt, Secretary of Innovation and Technology and State Chief Information Officer of Illinois.

State Minister for Industries and Commerce and Information Technology K.T. Rama Rao and Consulate General of India in Chicago Ausaf Sayeed were present on the occasion.

The two states will share best practices, tools and processes for disaster and emergency management, data management, data analytics, open data and Intelligent Transportation Systems, according to a statement from the minister's office here.

Rama Rao is on the second leg of his business visit to the US to promote Telangana as an investments destination.

The MoU aims to promote entrepreneurship in both the states by facilitating interaction between entrepreneurs and holding hackathons for high citizen impact applications.

Under the agreement, the two states will also work to establish UI Labs, an innovation accelerator, in Telangana and to replicate innovation labs in Telangana back in Illinois.

It also aims to promote innovation in the industry of Illinois and Telangana.

--IANS

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