VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government, through the AP Economic Development Board, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) to work with various economic departments under the government with a broader objective of economic recovery and growth monitoring, especially post COVID-19, with special focus on economic development and job creation in the State. One of the areas of collaboration is a project to make executive capital Visakhapatnam a ‘engine of growth’.
The areas of collaboration also include ‘high-frequency high-resolution indicators for monitoring economic recovery in Andhra Pradesh’, focus on food processing sector in Rayalaseema, improving governance and data analytics, unshackling informal sector growth and reshaping the skill development programs. The data analytics is designed to move from hindsight to foresight and outsight, ie, from mere descriptive analytics to predictive and prescriptive policy analytics, which is going to be a game-changer in the days to come.
The MoU will nurture a think tank by setting up a policy lab called ‘GoAP-ISB Policy Lab’, a public policy laboratory to drive evidence-based policy decisions. It aims at creating a ‘Knowledge Bank’ for strategic planning, policy analysis, data analytics, and action-research essential for sustaining high rates of growth and successful completion within the timeline with a focus on investment flows, their efficacy in terms of value addition, employment generation and wealth creation.
The lab, modeled on the lines of the Policy Lab in the UK cabinet, will enable greater synergistic functioning of the departments and work towards the objective of economic monitoring, recovery and development. APEDB Chief Executive Officer JVN Subramanyam and Prof Rajendra Srivastava, Dean ISB, exchanged the MoU in the presence of Industries, Commerce, IT and Skill Development Training Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy in a virtual event on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said, “We are working with the ISB for the past few months on identifying various areas of collaboration. Today, we are on-boarding the ISB as our knowledge partner to work on various initiatives in skill development, e-governance, turning Visakhapatnam into a growth engine, improving value addition in food processing, etc.” He said that the GoAP-ISB Policy Lab is an initiative on the lines of Policy Lab in the UK. “We intend to generate data using randomized control trials (RCTs) and gather evidence to measure the impact of our policies and drive our policy decisions based on strong research evidence. This is truly cutting-edge in the field of economics and public policy and last year’s Nobel Prize winners were recognized for pioneering this experimental RCT approach to development economics,” he said.
Special Chief Secretaries R Karikal Valaven (Industries and Commerce), Poonam Malakondaiah (Agriculture) and G Anantharamu (Skill Development) and other officials and Professor Ashwini Chhatre, Executive Director, Bharti Institute for Public Policy, DNV Kumara Guru, Director External Relations from the ISB participated.
