Cabinet clears IT policy, Kerala AI mission in the pipeline

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet has approved a new IT policy that proposes the formation of four missions to boost the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The missions to be set up are the Kerala AI Mission, Kerala Electronics and Semiconductor Mission, Kerala Future Tech Mission, and the Digital Transformation Mission. The main aim is to rapidly transform Kerala into a future-ready digital economy and an innovation hub.

The Digital Transformation Mission will provide a common infrastructure for different business units. This will include a shared pool of digital tools, business analytics solutions, intelligent aggregation platforms, secure and subsidised cloud space, and GPU facilities.

The IT policy also states that special incentives will be given to companies and startups to encourage investments in the space technology sector and to build a strong ecosystem.

A land pooling system will be implemented to set up more IT parks. Data centres will be promoted, and labour laws will be simplified to support industry growth.

Plug-and-play workspaces in IT parks will be expanded to new cities. A Critical Infrastructure Fund will be created to ensure the smooth functioning of IT parks and to tackle natural disasters and pandemics.

Co-working infrastructure, angel networks, and micro venture capital (VC) translation centres will be set up for startups. Capital subsidies and other incentives will also be provided for the growth of the IT industry.

Five lakh jobs

• The policy aims to create five lakh new jobs in IT and related sectors and to achieve at least a 10% share in the country’s IT exports.
• The number of startups will be increased to 20,000, and fibre optic connectivity will be ensured to provide internet access to all households.
• Skill training will be provided in Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, data analytics, and bioinformatics.
• Will encourage entrepreneurship by women, persons with disabilities, and transgender individuals. A law will be introduced to ensure data privacy.
• Digital education will be introduced from Classes 1 to 10, and 25 lakh students will be trained within five years.
• The policy also focuses on growth in sectors such as space, aerospace, defence, electronics, Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, and genomics.