The Telangana Government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Illinois State for collaboration and interaction between the two States in various fields in the form of sharing expertise.
The agreement was signed by Principal Secretary (Industries and Commerce) Arvind Kumar on behalf of Telangana and Secretary of Innovation & Technology and Chief Information Officer Hardik Bhatt on behalf of Illinois at Chicago on Monday.
Telangana Minister for Industries and IT KT Rama Rao and Consulate General of India in Chicago Dr. Ausaf Sayeed were present at the event. The MoU was signed as part of Mr. Rama Rao’s second leg of business visit to the USA to promote Telangana and attract investments to the State. According to officials, the agreement would facilitate cooperation in the areas of Smart State Solutions, e-Governance, entrepreneurship, innovation, business incubators, job creation and best practices between the two States. Under the Smart State solutions, Illinois State would introduce “Array of Things” sensors for air pollution monitoring in Telangana.
The two States would also share best practices, tools and processes for disaster/emergency management, data management, data analytics, open data and Intelligent Transportation Systems.
As part of cooperation in e-Governance, the two States would strive to transform the State agencies by incorporating communications and information technologies into their operations. The two governments would share information and insights on the e-services implemented in Illinois and Telangana, evaluate them for their effectiveness and impact on citizens, the officials explained.
Further, the MoU would also aim at promoting entrepreneurship in both the States by facilitating interaction between entrepreneurs and holding hackathons for high citizen impact applications.
The two States would work to establish UI Labs, an innovation accelerator, in Telangana and to replicate innovation labs in Telangana back in Illinois.
The MoU would also help establishment of joint business incubators to support development of high technology solutions and foster the start-up culture. The two States would also work for identifying job creation initiatives and share best practices and experience related to policies and regulations, financial models and standards.
Source: The Hindu