NITI Aayog, Amazon Web Services co-launch cloud center to boost innovations in public sector

Considered as the first-of-its-kind in India, India's digital empowerment body NITI Aayog has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to establish Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) in India.

To address societal challenges through digital innovation, this CIC will be part of AWS CIC Global Program.

The center is expected to provide an opportunity for government agencies, non-profits, and educational institutions, to come together on pressing challenges, apply design thinking, test new ideas, and access technology expertise of AWS.

“We are seeing public sector organizations around the world use cloud technology to innovate in a fast and agile manner, address problems at scale, and transform public services for citizens,” said Max Peterson, Vice President, International Sales, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Our Cloud Innovation Centers program is designed to be a catalyst for innovation in the public sector, by bringing together technology experts to address challenges. We are excited to collaborate with NITI Aayog and support its public sector mission in India.”

AIM (Atal Innovation Mission) Mission Director R. Ramanan believes that the NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC will be a great enabler to budding innovators and start-ups, and will help in piloting state-of-the-art, cloud-centric digital innovations by leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, robotics, blockchain, etc. He says that the CIC also aligns with Prime Minister’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, as well that of NITI Aayog and Atal Innovation Mission.

“The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center will enable government stakeholders, start-ups, and local organizations in India to innovate and create new approaches to solving problems,” said Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog “Through the AWS CIC program, we now have the opportunity to experiment with the latest technology, and access world-class expertise that will help us advance citizen services, and better understand how frontier technologies can address the unique needs of our country,” she added.

The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC addresses a core mission: to identify and deploy leading-edge technologies to drive continuous innovation in delivering citizen services.

The center will identify and prioritize projects as well as collaborate with local leaders, including subject matter experts at the state and district levels, to solve critical challenges. Local enterprises, start-ups, researchers, and universities in India can experiment and build prototypes on AWS Cloud.

“With AWS Cloud, public sector organizations get the power of the broadest and deepest cloud services to accelerate their missions and make the world a better place,” said Rahul Sharma, Regional Head, AISPL Public Sector, AWS India and South Asia. “We are deeply committed to help public sector organizations in India achieve transformational economic and societal impact and look forward to sharing our global experiences to accelerate digital innovation in the country.”

The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC joins a global network of AWS public sector cloud innovation centers across Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, and the United States.