Last year, Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India while addressing an AI summit mentioned 5 qualities about data that are essential – quality, quantity, depth, access, and diversity. From an Indian context, all boxes can be ticked but quality and access remain a concern. Unarguably, siloed systems must shoulder the blame, partly. If you look at sectors such as agriculture and healthcare, the data sets generated are massive, and the challenge is how to make them accessible to innovators and for them to draw valuable insights from, which can then be utilized for creating solutions.

The Govt. of Telangana works closely with diverse stakeholders such as researchers, industrialists, startups, educational institutions to craft an AI-led vision and solve big, massive problems of the state. Telangana achieved 17.93% growth in IT/ITeS exports (2019-20) which was more than 2X the national average of 8.09%. The state has set an ambitious target of ensuring that AI contributes $5 Billion to the state’s IT exports by 2025. In the process, it should be able to establish a global AI hub and foster social innovation as well. 

2020 – the Year of AI

2020 was declared as Telangana’s Year of AI and a robust framework was drawn which stood on 6 pillars – Data Exchange Platform & HPAIC; Skilling & Education; Governance, Ethics & Privacy; Research & Innovation; Enabling Adoption & Community Collaboration; and, the AI Innovestment Fund. In the words of Hon’ble IT Minister for Telangana, KTR Rao, “AI revolution is expected to transform the global economy and early adopters will have first-mover advantage. Therefore, the Telangana government is setting a vision to accelerate AI readiness and develop a conducive ecosystem in the State.” 

“From the very beginning of the state of Telangana coming into being, we were very clear that we wanted to embrace all the various emerging technologies. When we started looking at AI, we felt that a few events wouldn’t be enough, that we must sustain it over a period of time. And that’s how the idea to have a year-long focus on AI came about,” said Shri Jayesh Ranjan, the Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce and Information Technology Departments of the Telangana government.

Smt. Rama Devi Lanka, Director Emerging Technologies & Officer on Special Duty (ITE & C Department, Telangana) adds yet another dimension: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to solve many of the problems our country has been facing for many decades, especially from a socio-economic perspective. In 2020, Telangana State made a commitment to demonstrate this power of technology through the implementation of AI solutions, from PoC to mass deployment, helping millions of people.” 

Towards meeting this vision, four areas are under focus: healthcare, agriculture, mobility, education & law enforcement. And, the advancements made are substantial. 

Agritech

AI can revolutionize India’s agricultural sector and strong pilots are the catalysts of change, and an evidence-based comprehensive digital strategy (for agriculture) is underway that has a four-pronged approach – productivity, sustainability, inclusivity & efficiency. Let’s dissect these 4 areas to show what they really mean.

• Productivity – achieving the national goal of doubling farmer’s income.
• Sustainability – judicious use of natural resources.
• Inclusivity – using tech to bridge divides, especially for 55% of landless farmers in Telangana.
• Efficiency – building robust decision support systems for the govt. to design targeted schemes & initiatives. 

These ideas work in a concerted manner to augment some of the leading pilots:

• AI4AI – Working with WEF to implement high-impact AI use cases. The insights can be used by farmers and the agricultural department. 
• Agritech Innovation Pilots – the state’s Agricultural University is mentoring 11 cutting-edge agritech startups. 
• Agri Data Hub – massive data collection exercise has been enabled by the govt. 
• NeGPA working with GoI to deploy six high-impact tech use cases.  
• Wadhwani AI has initiated AI-based pest management solutions through smartphones. 
• Pesticide Spraying Using Drones. 

Govtech Flagship Projects 

• COVID 19 Data Platform uses anonymized datasets (govt. and public) and aids in decision-making related to situational awareness, rate of transmission, and enforcements as well. There are over 100 dashboards. 
• Real-time Digital Authentication of Identity (RTDAI) – computer vision and image comparison are used to provide contactless and presence-less service delivery of citizens from home. It’s a three-factor verification: AI-based liveness check to ensure that the selfie uploaded is of a living person; Big Data based demographic check to match names with multiple name variations; and, deep-learning based image comparison to match photographs. 
• AI-based Anthropometry for newborns. Wadhwani AI’s smartphone-based anthropometry technology helps frontline caregivers to screen for low birth-weight babies in rural homes. 
• Once again, Wadhwani AI brings to the fore, smartphone-based solutions that detect bollworms that cause devastation in cotton crops. 
• Quality Assaying of Agricultural Commodities – AI-based image processing algorithms can do physical tests for grading which ensures fair compensation for farmers. 
• Crowd management solutions can calculate headcount in real-time that aids effective crowd management. 

TASK

It’s the acronym for Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge. Along with Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), Microsoft, and Nasscom FutureSkills, the March to Million initiative in Telangana aims at skilling one million youth in Artificial Intelligence by 2021; of which there will be 30,000 youth in Telangana. 

Bringing Greater Visibility Through Events & Ecosystem Partners

Overall, 74 events were planned last year, and in partnership with the ecosystem participants. 

At XperienceAI, the sessions focused on strategic scaling of AI adoption to accelerate the Digital India initiative and covering several use cases including what it is to innovate in the COVID world.  

At RAISE 2020, the Telangana story including AI Governance & the Institutional Mechanism were highlighted. Panels featured eminent international personalities. Shri Jayesh Ranjan, during a conversation with NASSCOM, highlighted the collaborative approach of his government in driving these initiatives & pilot projects to scale up and gain much greater visibility.

Amongst some of the notable ecosystem partners are Intel, NVIDIA, WEF, Wadhwani AI, NASSCOM, IIT Hyderabad, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, and Public Health Foundation of India. Shri Jayesh Ranjan highlighted the collaborative approach that the state has embraced when he said, “Even before declaring 2020 as the year of AI, we prepared a framework on the lines of the Niti Aayog framework “AI for all” through a participatory exercise with multiple stakeholders”.  

This blog is only a brief overview of the AI Framework of the state and what it has achieved. Greater details and very successful use cases are available online.