Alibaba, the cloud giant, has signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with India’s state governing body APEDB (Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board) to adopt cloud computing frameworks within the government model to boost smart city development in India.
As per the terms of the deal, Alibaba will help APEDB with smart technologies for sustainable farming, integrated traffic management, smart city management as well as small-medium enterprises and skill development programmes.
According to Alibaba, South East Asia as a region and India in specific is taking steady steps to manage urban infrastructure with the help of new age technology. They claim that the cloud’s benefits are of utmost relevance to their vision since the integration with IoT is useful for building smart city applications.
These applications, say Alibaba, will need to fit within the computing framework of the government model for APEDB since different rules apply to a region like India. They also say that the formation of this alliance was simpler since the state of Andhra Pradesh in India has been well known as a tech hub, as well as, a center of innovation for many SMEs.
Alibaba are of the opinion that this partnership will foster great economic development for the region. J. Krishna Kishore, CEO at APEDB, commented:
The government is ensuring that SMEs in Andhra Pradesh are integrated with global value chains. This MoU with Alibaba Cloud helps to foster greater economic growth through tech-empowered SMEs.
The cloud giant claims that their group will most likely extend co-operation in real-time governance functions such as cyber surveillance, disaster management and sustainable farming as well if the first phase is a success.
Dr. Alex Li, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud India, commented:
We are pleased to collaborate with a progressive state such as Andhra Pradesh and we are confident to leverage the Alibaba Cloud’s ET City Brain Solution for furthering the state’s digital transformation and deploying advanced ICT technologies.
Industry experts opine that Alibaba’s expansion is a great ploy to gain market share in South East Asia. This move is reminiscent of Alibaba unveiling its first AI city in Malaysia, where they helped urban administrators build a smart city. Looks like Alibaba is going the whole hog with their cloud ambitions.