Minister for Industries and Commerce, IT, Skill Development and Training Mekapati Goutham Reddy held deliberations with senior executives of Amazon Web Services (AWS) through a virtual meeting on Thursday on a partnership which the Andhra Pradesh government sought to forge for skilling and promotion of entrepreneurship and digital governance in the State.
AWS already gave a ‘Vision for AP’ in tune with its commitments to invest in start-ups and skill initiatives in India and to align with the Digital India programme.
The next steps likely in this journey which the State Government and AWS had embarked on are the signing of a MoU with a time-bound action plan and forming a steering committee to drive accountability, according to an official release. Addressing the participants, Mr. Reddy said the State government was already collaborating with Amazon for the empowerment of women entrepreneurs under the ‘Amazon Saheli’ programme, which was aimed at supporting women engaged in handicrafts and making toys and other products. He said the government was making efforts to bring back a large number of Telugu people employed in the field of Information Technology, to strengthen the sector in the State.
As part of the partnership, Amazon had come forward to set up a Centre of Excellence out of the proposed 30 skill development centres in the State. The AWS would also help the government in taking administration to the doorsteps of the people.
Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd. MD Rahul Sharma said his company was keen on bringing about revolutionary changes in education, agriculture, health care and power sectors. Secretary (ITE&C) Y. Bhanuprakash, AP Technology Services MD M. Nanda Kishore, advisers Srinath Devireddy, J. Vidyasagar Reddy and T. Lokeshwar Reddy, AISPL Head (States & Local Government) Ajay Kaul, and AWS GM (Public Policy) Yolynd Lobo took part.
