BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Friday signed MoUs with HCL Technologies and Sarvam AI for setting up an AI data centre and a global delivery centre in Khurda district, with a proposed investment of more than `15,000 crore over the next five years.
The Electronics and IT Department signed one MoU with HCL Technologies and another jointly with HCL Technologies and Sarvam AI in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
Under the agreements, HCL Technologies, with support from Sarvam AI, will establish its first AI data centre in Odisha while the company will independently set up a global delivery centre.
The state government will set up a sovereign or fully indigenous AI Park in Odisha, which will house the data centre. The AI data centre project alone entails a planned capital outlay of Rs 14,257 crore, including financial assistance from the state government.
An investment of Rs 730 crore will be made for the global delivery centre which will significantly strengthen the state’s digital ecosystem. It will provide direct employment opportunities to more than 6,000 highly-educated and skilled youth of Odisha.
Addressing the MoU signing ceremony, Majhi said a new revolution has begun in Odisha’s industry and technology sector. “This initiative will further strengthen technology-driven economic growth in Odisha and create direct employment opportunities for thousands of highly-educated and skilled youth of the state,” he said.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ‘Digital India’ vision, the chief minister said India is now tech-ready and Odisha is leading this wave of innovation.
“Earlier, we depended on foreign AI but today our indigenous Sarvam AI is on par with any technology in the world,” he added.
Majhi said that in the coming days, Sarvam AI will be widely used in agriculture, health, education and defence sectors. With the establishment of this AI Park and Data Centre in Odisha, AI services in Odia and various other Indian languages will be available from Odisha itself, he added.
Stating that industrialisation has gathered momentum in the state, Majhi said in the last two years, investment proposals worth over `20 lakh crore have come in and projects worth over `10 lakh crore have been approved. Projects worth over `3 lakh crore have already been implemented on the ground, he said.
Electronics and IT minister Mukesh Mahaling said that this initiative will take the state’s electronics and IT sector to a new peak of progress. HCL Technologies chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra said that HCL is fully prepared to invest in Odisha. “We strive to be an enabler of India’s sovereign AI ecosystem with differentiated offerings across the value chain through focused investments and partnerships. We are pleased to begin this endeavour in partnership with the Odisha government and Sarvam,” she said.
Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar said the Odisha Sovereign AI Park would combine high-performance computing infrastructure with Indian AI models and real-world applications.
