Telangana Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan on Wednesday called upon Information Technology firms to create products and solutions that help bridge the digital divide.
The senior official, who was addressing the 31st annual summit of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) here, said this seeking to highlight the emphasis of the new government in Telangana on addressing the issue through a combination of measures.
The IT industry could help by developing products and solutions affordable, accessible and made available in the local language, he said. “We will be happy to assist...,” he said, urging firms to also consider deploying students in their final year of their engineering course to work on live projects.
Suggesting a move away from the short term internships, Mr.Ranjan said by allowing students to work on live projects and providing them mentors the industry would eventually benefit. The official wanted HYSEA to pursue this as agenda, with member-companies. He called upon companies to also encourage employees to participate in corporate social responsibility programmes.
‘AI: celebrating the future’ was the theme of the national summit, organised by HYSEA in association with STPI-Hyderabad. The annual industry awards for excellence in export and product development were also presented.
Former CEO and managing director of Tech Mahindra CP Gurnani was presented with HYSEA Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the Indian IT industry. “AI is an opportunity, lets make it happen,” Mr.Gurnani said in his acceptance speech, while referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent statement that of the $5 trillion economy that India was aspiring to become $500 billion would be influenced by Artificial Intelligence.
EOM
