Sign MoU to boost education and local innovation, foster entrepreneurship, and accelerate economic competitiveness and citizen engagement in the state
Cisco has announced a series of strategic initiatives to help accelerate the digital transformation of Telangana. Digital disruption is a reality and is transforming every country, state and city. A digitized state aims to drive GDP growth, create jobs and foster innovation, enhance education, stimulate entrepreneurship, accelerate business innovation, develop economic cluster initiatives, and support infrastructure. Toward that end, Cisco and the Government of Telangana have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which includes the Digital Zone smart city project in Hyderabad, establishing an Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub and a Living Lab near Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad, a Center of Excellence and Living Lab in T–Hub premises, the largest building in India to be entirely dedicated to entrepreneurship, remote education in 10 schools in Karimnagar, and deploying digital solutions at the historical landmark monument of Hyderabad, the Qutubshahi tombs.
According to the press release, the MoU between Cisco and the Government of Telangana was signed today as part of the IT Sectoral Policy Launch event in Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad, in the presence of the Minister of IT E&C, MA&UD, Industries & Commerce, Mines& Geology, Public Enterprises and NRI Affairs K. T Rama Rao, other government dignitaries; and Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India and SAARC.
As part of the Digital Zone project, Cisco will deploy City Digital Platform (CDP) in the 2.2 km area near Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad, including smart Wi-Fi, smart parking, smart lighting, traffic analytics at key junctions, Remote Expert for Government Services (REGS), smart environmental sensors, smart waste management, and a smart control center to monitor and manage the city with greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Cisco will set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) and a Living Lab on the T-Hub premises to foster regional innovation, and will enable partners and startups to build solutions around IoT and cyber security and engage in rapid prototyping. This will also act as a platform to bring startups, accelerators, developers, researchers, ecosystem partners and the venture community together to showcase possibilities of the Internet of Things. In the CoE, Cisco would showcase its global smart cities platform, “City Digital Platform (CDP),” which can integrate various smart city services onto a unified platform along with Cisco Collaboration solutions and Cisco Mobility Services Engine.
The Cisco CoE will be hosted in the IIIT campus in T-Hub, which is part of the state-of-the-art 70,000-square-foot building called Catalyst, the largest building in India to be entirely dedicated to entrepreneurship. T-Hub’s mission is to catalyze the growth of Hyderabad into one of the most vibrant startup communities in the world.
Cisco will set up virtual video-based classrooms in 10 remote schools in Karimnagar district for inter-school learning. The solution will connect the district school to the remote schools for the sharing of faculty. Cisco will deploy the solution to connect these schools over HD-quality video conferencing to share the faculty across the connected schools. The solution will also enable digital sharing of content, live streaming, recording, creation of a repository and accessing the content on demand.
Minister of IT E&C, MAUD, Industries & Commerce, Mines & Geology, Public Enterprises and NRI Affairs K. T Rama Rao, said, “Hyderabad has a rich past of attracting investors for its geographical location, its culture, the suitable weather, excellent connectivity, the infrastructure and most importantly the government’s vision to digitally transform the state and rollout initiatives to help the industry. My vision for the state is to continue that rich legacy of making Hyderabad the most preferred IT destination in the world and expand it to the rest of Telangana.
I envision digitally empowering every citizen of the state, enhancing quality of life of citizens, accelerating economic competitiveness, boosting local innovation and becoming a knowledge and technology hub of the country. We are happy to partner with Cisco for this transformative project, and we believe Cisco’s global experience and expertise in digitization will benefit Telangana immensely and catapult the state to the forefront of the digital revolution.’’
Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India and SAARC, said, ‘“Digitization will be key to how cities, communities and countries maintain global competitiveness, increase GDP growth, foster innovation and create new jobs. The government’s vision to transform Telangana into a digital state is visionary and will create huge opportunities for the state, its citizens and the nation. We are thrilled to partner with the government.”
