In a bid to woo investors in electronics manufacturing, the Tamil Nadu government will soon release a policy on Electronic Hardware Manufacturing (EMS), said Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami.

This new policy will enable companies to bring investment and jobs and contribute to the economic development of the State; he said inaugurating the CII Connect2019, a two-day international conference and exhibition on Information and Communications Technology.

A senior State government official said that that the policy’s draft is ready, and is doing the rounds among various departments in the Secretariat. The policy is likely to incentivise start-ups and young entrepreneurs to pursue electronics hardware manufacturing. The government in January had come out with a Start-up policy.

TNeGA initiatives

Palaniswami at the event also released the CII - KPMG in India report titled – ‘Fintech and start-ups fueling India’s $5 trillion economy’ Thought Leadership Report and launched two major initiatives of the Tamil Nadu eGovernance Agency (TNeGA). The agency has launched an Artificial Intelligence-based agri pest identification; a facial recognition system; a Tamil chat-bot and a Youtube channel for government’s e-Sevai delivery.

Santosh K Misra, CEO, TNeGA, said that the AI-based pest identification in crops was developed in-house by the agency and integrated into agriculture department’s Uzhavan App. A farmer can take a picture of the crop that has been affected by pests, and upload it in the app. With a few minutes, officials in the agriculture department will analyse the pest and will revert with the solution, he said.

Facial recognition system

On the facial recognition system, Misra said that it is being implemented in two Corporation schools in Chennai. As and when the students walk, the camera automatically detects the person and marks the attendance. Similarly, once the student exits the campus, the attendance is automatically recorded. The system, which helped saving time for students, will soon be rolled out in the entire State in phases, he said.

On the Tamil chatbot, named Anil (squirrel in Tamil), Misra said using Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence technology development in collaboration with Anna University, the chatbot will guide and advise people by answering their queries.

On the Youtube channel for TNeGA, Misra said it would guide people for applying various government services like income, nativity, community certificates through the online e-Sevai.

In the last one year, Tamil Nadu has received an investment of Rs 6,500 crore in the IT sector, resulting in 60,000 new employments in the State, said Palaniswami.

The IT/ITeS sector exports have increased nearly 10 per cent and employment has increased by 4 per cent in the last one year. "I thank Captains of the Industry. I request you to continue the same support in future also. The peaceful atmosphere and the human resource available in the State have made things possible for investors across the spectrum to come and start their business and the IT industry indeed had seen tremendous growth in the last few years," he said.