Focus On Building AI Talent To Attract 150 New GCCs To Hyd: Sridhar Babu

Ethically-grounded AI policy (unveiling by March 2025), AI University and Young India Skill University that will be providing industry-ready resource, will further support integration of emerging tech into every industry, leading Telangana to achieve $1 trillion economy

Hyderabad: Telangana government has set its eyes on being $1 trillion economy by 2047, for which the strat-egies are being worked out; one of which includes scaling up every sector and vertical of industry through integration of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), and attracting new investors like the GCCs, said the IT minister.

In a fireside chat with Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and Co-founder of Phenom, held during the Iam-Phenom India Conference, in Hyderabad on Friday, D Sridhar Babu, Information Technology Minister, Government of Telangana, said: “While the Centre has set a goal to become $30 trillion economy by 2047, Telangana government has an ambitious plan to have a major take in India’s mission by achieving $1 trillion economy, for this we will have to scale up every vertical of indus-tries to the next stage by integrating emerging technologies into all the sectors.”

He went on to add that the government has been successful in attracting companies to set up their GCCs in Hyderabad. Currently, there are 250 GCCs in city, and the government will work towards scaling the number to over 400 GCCs in the coming few years. This, he said, can be achieved by providing industries with the needed talent. However, he pointed out that, today about 80 per cent of the talent is into coding, and if they do not harness AI they are going to be-come redundant.

Highlighting the government’s role in facilitating skilling and upskilling talent, he mentioned about the Young India Skill University, where students are trained by industry experts in various skills needed to enter the workforce. He also informed about the AI School/University that is go-ing to come up at the AI City, which will provide hands-on experience to students in real-world AI projects.

The minister also spoke about the AI City, which is coming up in the Future City at Mucherla, spread across 200 acres of land. He invited AI-based product companies, startups, GCCs and R&D units to set up shop at the AI City, for which the architectural framework is going to be un-veiled in the first quarter of CY 2025. Asked about the necessary energy resource needed to support the growing number of Data Cen-tres in the city, the minister informed that the Energy Minister is coming up with a policy in 2025, which is going to take into consideration the power supply requirement of Data Centres.

On a query about the status of the new AI Policy, Sridhar Babu told Bizz Buzz, “The work has been assigned to our officers for framing the Artificial Intelligence policy. How far we can use, harness and integrate AI into the scheme of things is what we are mulling on as any technology can be used for good and bad purpose. Hence we are working on to understand the extent AI can be used to benefit us and then be disbanded. The best example is Switzerland, where they have framed the policy taking moral aspect in AI into consideration. We are also working with Denmark and countries which have worked on policies keeping ethical ground in the forefront. In March 2025 the AI Policy will be rolled out.”