Nasscom inks pact with Telangana to set up Centre of Excellence in AI, Tech

The Telangana government today signed an agreement with Nasscom to establish a Centre of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence here.

According to state IT minister KT Rama Rao, with an initial joint investment of Rs 400 billion, the CoE will catalyse the growth of the deep tech ecosystem in Telangana, by providing the stimulus for innovation and in-depth research in the areas of data science and artificial intelligence.

"To be established on a public-private partnership model, the CoE is the most recent addition to Nasscom's 'hub-and-spoke' network of CoEs across major locations in the country, aimed at evangelising new and emerging technologies," said Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar.

The CoE will serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders, to build collective capabilities for the industry and country in the cutting-edge areas of data science and artificial intelligence, he added.

"This CoE, in partnership with Nasscom and the industry, is in the direction for developing Telangana and India as global hub for DS & AI in the coming years," Rama Rao said.

It is expected that the data science and artificial intelligence industry in India (IT and non-IT industries) will be worth $16 billion by 2025, and is likely to spur an additional employment of 150,000 professionals in the country, a Nasscom media release said.