The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which the former will be the Knowledge Partner for the State government for the ‘GoAP-ISB Policy Lab’ initiative.
The MoUs were exchanged by APEDB CEO J.V.N. Subramanyam and ISB Dean Rajendra Srivastava in the presence of Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy via video conference on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Goutham Reddy said the government had been working with the ISB for the past few months on identifying the areas of collaboration. With the exchange of MoU, the ISB would work on initiatives in skill development, e-governance, turning Visakhapatnam into a growth engine, and improving value addition in food processing.
Mr. Reddy further said that the initiative was modelled on the lines of the one in the U.K. “We intend to generate data using randomised control trials (RCTs) and gather evidence to measure the impact of our policies and drive our decisions based on strong research evidence. This is truly cutting edge in the field of economics and public policy, and the last year’s Nobel Prize winners have been recognised for pioneering this experimental (RCT) approach,” he said.
According to officials, the policy lab aims at creating a ‘knowledge bank’ for strategic planning, policy analysis, data analytics and action-research essential for sustaining high rates of growth and successful completion within the committed timelines with focus on investment flows, their efficacy in terms of value addition, employment generation and wealth creation.
Priority areas
The areas of collaboration also include ‘High frequency high resolution indicators for monitoring economic recovery in Andhra Pradesh’, project on Visakhapatnam as a growth engine, focus on food processing sector in Rayalaseema, and improving e-governance and data analytics.
Special Chief Secretary (Industries and Commerce) Karikal Valaven, ITE&C Secretary Y. Bhanuprakash, APSSDC MD & CEO Arja Srikanth, and faculty and experts from the ISB took part in the video conference.