Vijayawada: Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday directed officials to formulate proposals to construct an iconic building for ‘deep technology’ in the capital city of Amaravati. In a review meeting with officials, which was also attended by IT minister Nara Lokesh, on the govt’s new IT policy, Naidu said the future of the present generation will depend on latest technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and deep technology.
Recalling how a complete ecosystem was built with the development of Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad, which started with just one iconic building, the chief minister said the deep technology iconic building would be developed to embrace opportunities arising from the latest technology. Naidu directed officials to formulate proposals for setting up of five lakh workstations by 2029 and 10 lakh such workstations by 2034 across the state.
He stressed on creating co-working spaces, providing necessary land on subsidy for constructing multi-storied office complexes, granting permissions through a single-window system to provide basic amenities, and bringing all IT companies under power tariff to give a necessary fillip to the industry in the state.
Officials were also asked to formulate plans to extend seed funding up to 25 lakh each to SCs, STs, BCs, minorities, and women as part of the govt’s Start-up policy. The CM issued guidelines to officers to set up five innovation hubs, and link them to the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub for the development of innovation and start-up ecosystem in the state.
“Ratan Tata Innovation Hub should function as the centre for the zonal hubs in Central Andhra, Rayalaseema,South Andhra, Godavari, and North Andhra, and 25 IITs should be interlinked to these five zonal hubs,” said Naidu. Directing officials to work with the goal of providing employment to the youth, Naidu said district collectors should identify available lands for setting up of the workstations. Skill upgradation is necessary at all the workstations for the youth to meet their future needs, he told officials.
The CM further stressed on the need to develop skills among the rural youth. State has divided and categorised the subsidy to be provided to developers of IT companies. If a company is to be eligible to get necessary subsidy for co-working space, it should either have a 100-seating capacity or an office complex with a space of 10,000 square feet.
Similarly, the neighbourhood working space should have a 10-seat capacity or 1,000 square feet of office space. The final plan is being formulated to extend subsidies to companies which have either a turnover of 30 crore or a minimum of 100 staff strength.