India, China launch first joint projects in Big Data, AI

India and China have launched their first joint projects in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data.

An AI-focused IT corridor was on Saturday launched by both countries in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, while on Sunday, a big data-focused IT cooperation platform was opened in the southwestern city of Guiyang.

The two projects, backed by the Chinese government and India’s National Association for Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), are aimed at boosting cooperation between Indian software companies and Chinese firms in high-tech manufacturing in big data and Internet of Things projects.

India has sought greater market access for IT companies in China, and the hope is that the two new initiatives will further open the door.

The idea is to “help in bringing together the IT requirements of Chinese companies, particularly in Guiyang, with Indian companies which have solutions to offer,” Indian envoy to China Gautam Bambawale said on Sunday.

“In this way, we will be marrying together the requirements of Chinese companies with the capabilities of Indian IT service providers,” he said. “We visualise that these initiatives will give a big impetus to cooperation between India and China in the IT-enabled services sector.”

Bambawale said that following last month’s Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both sides “now have a political environment in which India and China business and commercial ties can expand rapidly.”

“In China, Indian IT companies are present in 10 cities around the country, with a total work-force of around 25,000 employees. However, we believe that the potential for Indian companies to cooperate with China is huge and needs more work and effort,” he said. “Indian IT companies have proven capabilities and are uniquely suited to partner their Chinese counterparts in implementing your initiatives in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Internet Plus.”

To connect Indian and Chinese companies, both sides have launched a joint IT “matchmaking” initiative called the Sino Indian Digital Collaborative Opportunities Plaza (SIDCOP) platform, an AI-powered platform which will be run by Zeta-V Technology Solutions, an Indian start-up which is already based in China, in cooperation with CASICloud, a Guizhou based cloud computing firm. The bilingual platform will help better link Indian and Chinese firms in AI, Internet of Things, and Big Data projects.

To begin with, pilot projects worth 25 million Yuan (around Rs 26.5 crore), were announced in Guizhou’s capital, Guiyang, which is being developed into a major centre for big data industries in China. Among them is a project for Bengaluru-based Sasken Technologies for predictive data analysis for testing autonomous cars.

Sujit Chatterjee, Founder, Zeta-V, said the company was “confident of executing business worth over 100 million Yuan (around Rs 105 crore) in our first year of operations” of the new platform.

Indian IT companies have been present in China for more than a decade, but most of their business is in servicing Western multinationals in the China market. The hope now is to secure more business with Chinese firms, particularly as China looks to upgrade its manufacturing through the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative.

Gagan Sabharwal, Senior Director, Global Trade Development, NASSCOM said, the long-term plan is to establish an India China IT corridor in Guiyang, to promote big data and analytics projects.

“This dedicated IT Corridor will be an exclusive place for interested NASSCOM members to begin operations and avail of preferential policy benefits and incentives provided by Guiyang City administration,” he said. “We believe the time is right to take our cooperation to the next level. There is so much potential in Indian IT and Chinese high-tech manufacturing, and it’s time we tap it.”

Source: India Today