The Telangana government will declare 2020 as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote its use in various sectors such as agriculture, urban transportation and healthcare. This was announced by Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao during a meeting with NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh here on Friday. The minister announced that the government would organise a series of events throughout the year centred around the AI theme. KTR, as the minister is popularly known, highlighted the various initiatives taken by the state government in the areas of emerging technologies. "Telangana government is continuing to attract investors from marquee companies which are setting up their R&D and technology development centres in emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, machine learning, cyber security and blockchain," KTR said.

Various technologies at Microsoft that began transforming the lives of individuals and communities in India last year will gain further momentum in 2018, the company's President Anant Maheshwari said on Tuesday. In a mission statement, Maheshwari said he is proud to play a role in the transformation of India's core pillars of education, health care, agriculture and governance, among others. Today, about 25 per cent students drop out from grade 10 to grade 11. "We have partnered with Andhra Pradesh government to see how machine learning can help educators foresee signs of a student being on the risk of dropping out and take preventive action. In 2017, the government expanded the rollout of the programme to all 13 districts in the state," Maheshwari said. Microsoft has also initiated "Project Sangam" that aims to upskill the workforce to prepare it for jobs that exist now and in the future.