The Telangana Fiber Grid (T-Fiber) project for providing internet connectivity to every household in the State was showcased by Information Technology and Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao at a session organised on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday.
T-Fiber has been envisioned to establish a state-of-the-art network infrastructure to facilitate the realisation of Digital Telangana objective.
The project piggybacks on the drinking water project Mission Bhagiratha, the Minister told the session titled 'Leveraging Digital to Deliver Value to Society'.
Dignitaries and panelists from across the world attended the session, including Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers from countries such as Denmark, Nigeria, Portugal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Brazil.
Mr. Rama Rao was the only minister to be invited from a provincial (State) government to this session, a release from his office on Friday evening said.
Speaking at another session on 'Developing an R&D Ecosystem in India' organised by Invest India, he highlighted the Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH). He said that this organisation linked all the knowledge-based institutions in the State with industries and investors to improve the ease of doing business.
“RICH as an organisation plays an important role in bringing out the research works into the market,” he said. He also mentioned the Telangana Intellectual Property Crime Unit (TIPCU), which he assured would ensure complete safety and security of the research related to patents.
Suzlon plans plant
The release also informed that the Minister met Suzlon Energy founder and chairman Tulsi Tanti and vice-president Nidhi Tanti. Highlighting the government's power policy and the progress that has been made in the solar power sector, the Minister told the Suzlon representatives that a power storage facility would boost the sector.
Mr. Tanti said Suzlon, a leading renewable energy solutions provider, was interested in setting up a power plant in Telangana.
Explore opportunities
The Telangana delegation, led by the Minister, met heads of other leading entities including PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi as well as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and president Amy E. Weaver.
In a meeting with Ericsson Group CTO Erik Ekudden, the Information Technology Minister delved into the Telangana government's efforts to promote electronics manufacturing sector. He suggested to the Ericsson leadership that Telangana could be evaluated as a destination for its manufacturing programme.
Ericsson could also explore collaboration with T-Hub, which is India's largest incubator for startups, he suggested.
Potential areas of business collaboration in innovation space along with T-Hub and the upcoming Biomedical Devices Park in Telangana were discussed at a meeting the Minister had with Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard Charlès.
The European software firm develops 3D design and 3D digital mock-ups. Mr. Rama Rao also met former United States of America vice-president Al Gore at a session to have a conversation about the Haritha Haram afforestation programme.
