VIJAYAWADA: Years ago, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu visualised the iconic Cyber Towers, the first phase of Hitech City, which saw the emergence of Cyberabad, ushering in a new era of technology in the country.
Now, Naidu has embarked on the construction of another iconic structure — Deep Technology Iconic Building — in the capital city of Amaravati to make it the next destination for deep technology, Artificial Intelligence, and other such futuristic technologies and create a plethora of opportunities.
Taking stock of the implementation of the new IT Policy in the State with senior officials on Tuesday, the Chief Minister directed them to prepare the proposals for the Deep Technology Iconic Building. He instructed the officials to formulate proposals for setting up five lakh workstations by 2029 and 10 lakh such workstations by 2034 in the State. Directing officials to work with the goal of providing employment to the youth, Naidu said district collectors, too, should identify the available lands for setting up the workstations. Also, skill upgradation is necessary at all the workstations for the youth to meet their future needs, he said.
On co-working spaces, he directed them to provide land on subsidy for constructing multi-storied office complexes, granting permissions through single-window systems for providing basic amenities and bringing the IT companies under power tariff. For co-working spaces, Naidu said, the company should either have 100-seating capacity or should have an office complex which has a space of 10,000 sq.ft.
Seed funding of Rs 25 lakh for SCs, STs, BCs & Minorities
Similarly, the neighbourhood working space should have a 10-seat capacity or 1,000 square feet of office space.
Naidu told officials to formulate plans to extend seed funding of up to Rs 25 lakh each to SCs, STs, BCs, Minorities, and women as part of the start-up policy.
The Chief Minister also issued guidelines to the officers for the setting up of five innovation hubs interlinking them to the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub for the development of innovation and start-up ecosystem in the State. He insisted that the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub should function as a centre for zonal hubs in Central Andhra, Rayalaseema, South Andhra, Godavari, and North Andhra and 25 IITs should be interlinked with these five zonal hubs. Observing that the youth living in rural areas have immense knowledge, but are unable to progress due to lack of necessary skills, the Chief Minister stressed the need to upskill them. The government has divided IT companies into three categories for providing subsidy. Final plan to extend subsidies to companies that have either Rs 30 crore turnover or a minimum of 100 staff strength is being formulated, Naidu noted.
IT Minister Nara Lokesh also expressed his opinion on the new IT policy.