APEDB inks MoU with Alibaba Cloud to adopt its cloud-computing framework

The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Alibaba Cloud in Vijayawada.

J. Krishna Kishore, Chief Executive Office, APEDB, and Vivek Gupta, Director – Business Development, Alibaba Cloud India, have signed this MoU in the presence of Dr Alex Li, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud India, and Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board formed under the chairmanship of Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu promotes sustainable economic growth through trade, investments, partnerships and collaborations. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud-computing arm of Alibaba Group, provides cloud-computing services to business of all sizes globally.

This MoU is a result of ongoing discussion that took place at the World Economic Forum 2018, Davos between Simon Hu, Senior Vice-President of Alibaba Group, and President of Alibaba Cloud, and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

APEDB and Alibaba Cloud also recently concluded a multi-stakeholder workshop between Alibaba Cloud and key government departments.

The MoU envisages leveraging Alibaba’s Cloud and Smart City technologies for sustainable farming, integrated traffic management, smart city management, small and medium enterprises and skill development programs.

J. Krishna Kishore, Chief Executive Office, APEDB, comments, “The Government is ensuring that SMEs in Andhra Pradesh are integrated with global value chains. This MoU with Alibaba Cloud helps to foster greater economic growth through tech-empowered SMEs.”

Dr Alex Li, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud India, emphasizes, “Andhra Pradesh is the pioneer in adopting and implementing latest technologies such as Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, etc in its governance model. We are pleased to collaborate with a progressive state such as Andhra Pradesh and we are confident to leverage the Alibaba Cloud's ET City Brain Solution for furthering the State’s digital transformation and deploying advanced ICT technologies.”

The group is likely to extend cooperation in Real Time Governance functions such as Traffic Management, Cyber Surveillance, Disaster Management, Sustainable Farming, among others.

Alibaba Cloud’s crowd-intelligence platform, Tianchi has attracted over 200,000 developers from 91 countries and regions in disciplines ranging from data mining and artificial intelligence to machine learning and operational research to solve real-world issues facing society at large.

Further, the MoU would unlock synergies between the Tianchi program and startup innovation programs undertaken by the Department of IT & Electronics to provide mentorship support and upskill the graduates and engineers in Alibaba Cloud technologies.