IT Minister bats for AI innovation, stresses on guardrails too

IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu on Thursday showcased Telangana’s plan to harness Artificial Intelligence and how Hyderabad on the back of its technology-led growth path is poised to emerge as an economic powerhouse like China’s Shenzhen.

The Minister, who is in Delhi in connection with the AI Impact Summit, told representatives of global strategic advisory firms such as Digital Governance Advisory and Albright Stonebridge Group, that the State government viewed safety in AI not as an obstacle to innovation. AI today is at a critical juncture and is in need of regulatory safeguards to build public trust.

Telangana government is taking AI technology to the grassroots level with sustainability as a core growth strategy. It has also announced plans to develop an AI City spread across 765 sq km and India’s first net-zero city Bharat Future City, designed for sustainable living.

He spoke of country’s first sovereign AI hub AIKAM the State has established, the Telangana Data Exchange (TGDeX) initiative, which is the world’s first sovereign open data pipeline, making 1,084 datasets (500 GB) from 28 government departments publicly usable. Currently, 360 AI models utilise this data and more than 950 experts and startups are actively working on the platform.

As part of proactive governance, the Integrated Digital Services Platform (IDSP) will deliver over 300 government services to 40 million citizens by 2027. The State aims to become a global AI hub and aspiring to become a $3 trillion economy by 2047.

The Minister said more than half of the growth of Hyderabad’s current $80-billion economy has been driven by its technology professionals. He sought to draw a parallel to Shenzhen in China, which from a small fishing village of the 1980s has shaped over time into a manufacturing hub and now is a $500-billion economic powerhouse.

Telangana and Hyderabad are at a similar transformational moment — except the growth engine is technology, not manufacturing, the Minister’s office said in a release on his keynote address at the meeting with the representatives of the advisory firms.

Addressing the US–India Business Council (USIBC) round table, Mr.Sridhar Babu highlighted how Telangana is emerging as a platform for AI–driven innovation and offering numerous opportunities for U.S. investors.