Andhra Minister Lokesh Nara meets Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh, who visited the US in a bid to attract investments, met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan.
Both Narayan and Nadella have links with Hyderabad. Nadella's father, an IAS officer, had worked in Andhra Pradesh in the past. Lokesh sought the cooperation of Microsoft in the digital governance system to develop smart city programmes as the state government has proposals to turn Amaravati an AI capital.
Nadella promised to extend all possible cooperation for promoting Andhra Pradesh as AI capital and also in digital transformation. Lokesh also asked Adobe CEO to set up its research and development (R&D) wing in Andhra Pradesh to become partners in smart governance and Artificial Intelligence-driven solutions in the state.
The IT Minister extended an invitation to Nadella to visit Andhra Pradesh.
Nadella, who has been holding the top position of the CEO of Microsoft since 2014, said that the company has been a global leader in software, cloud computing and enterprise technology. By October this year, Microsoft has a market cap of $3.1 trillion, he said, adding that in 2023 fiscal the company has earned a record profit of $211.9 million.
Stating that Hyderabad has turned into an IT hub under the leadership of N Chandrababu Naidu as the Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, Lokesh said that Naidu has plans to transform Andhra Pradesh into the IT capital. "As part of the programmem, we are setting up new IT hubs and innovation parks. We seek the active cooperation of Microsoft to take the IT hubs to global level," Lokesh said.
Expressing hope that Andhra Pradesh will soon turn into a regional centre for global institutes in cloud infrastructure and data centres, Lokesh said that the state has all needed facilities and opportunities for such centres. Claiming that the state has a strong academic record for generating the best talents in IT and engineering, he made a request to the Microsoft CEO to focus on this.
He also said that if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is interlinked to farming, the state will witness radical reforms in the sector. "We are going to establish AI university in Amaravati as part of this programme," he added.
Lokesh had a meeting with Narayan in San Francisco during which he asked the Adobe CEO to extend the company's cooperation to sharpen the digital technology skills among the youth. "The state government, with the vision of the Chief Minister, is adopting investor-friendly policy and Andhra Pradesh is the right place for investments," Lokesh told Narayan.
Narayan said that Adobe is now on the top in digital media and cloud-based services as the company "has made photoshop, acrobat and allied services more accessible". He also said that all the updated versions of document productivity and AI-based innovations are made available from time to time and the company has a market cap of Rs 17.95 lakh cr across the globe.
Appreciating the efforts of the company, Lokesh said that it perfectly suits the digital transformation vision of Andhra Pradesh and sought the cooperation of Adobe to transform the state into a global tech hub. Narayan said that a decision will soon be taken on investments in the state after holding discussions with company partners.