Innovation, skilling key to IT sector growth in AP

Visakhapatnam: DeepTech Naipunya Foundation (DTNF) co-founder and chairman Sridhar Kosaraju has said innovation, anchoring and skilling are the key drivers for making Visakhapatnam a prominent hub for investment in IT and ITeS.

Speaking at a panel discussion on IT organised here by American Telugu Association (ATA), Kosaraju advocated IAS (innovation, anchoring, and skilling) while responding on what is the prerequisite to create a vibrant ecosystem for giving a fillip to the growth of IT in Andhra Pradesh.

The Managing Director of Nimaisoft and former president of IT Association of AP (ITAAP) told Bizz Buzz later that the acronym IAS is vital for propelling growth of IT in Visakhapatnam as well as other potential growth centres like tier two and three cities like Tirupati, Anantapur, Vijayawada and Rajamahendravaram. He opined that innovation, anchoring, and skilling world over are proved to be the key drivers for the growth of IT and also stressed that all the stakeholders should plan different strategies to suit the requirement of learning lessons from the success stories of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai in the areas neighbouring AP and Telangana.

The programme, among others was attended by moderator Harish Battina from the USA, Suresh Batha, Additional Director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Lax Chepuri, CEO, Technogen (USA), Kiran Reddy Pasham, Co founder and president, Splash BI, (USA) and Anil Kumar Tentu , Chief Executive Officer, AP Innovation Society.

Kosaraju said serious efforts by the government and other stakeholders are required to promote innovation at a young age. “We need to foster a culture of innovation by implementing programmes, initiatives and policies that encourage creative problem-solving and idea generation across different levels,” he said and pleaded for establishment of Regional Innovation Boards (RIBs). RIBs, he said need to be set up at every IT hub proposed across the State with the active participation of industry leaders.

Underlining the need for hackathons and bootcamps at all levels of educational institutions, he said open challenges should be organised on a regular basis to engage the community, inviting innovative solutions to address specific problems of the industry and the government agencies.

Explaining about anchoring, he said bringing anchor companies in each segment will fulfil the requirement. Attracting anchor companies through various policy incentives will make a significant impact on the overall IT ecosystem.

Mooting GCCs (global capability centers), Kosaraju said this is a vital requirement. A conducive atmosphere is required to attract and host multinationals as global capability centers to build the brand name of the prospective IT hub. He said they floated DTNF sometime ago to primarily focus on creating a vibrant skilling and innovation ecosystem by making the stakeholders as the partners.

He said they are collaborating with the corporates and industries to identify talent gaps and involve skilling agencies as partners to facilitate required skilling to generate more employment opportunities. Students’ placement quotient will go up if they are given skilling, upskilling and reskilling orientation in emerging and niche technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to make them qualify as deeptech developers and innovators.