Amazon’s cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) in India on Monday said it is collaborating with Tamil Nadu Technology (iTNT) Hub to support the launch of the latter’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup hub programme. AWS said the programme will aim at boosting the development of generative AI solutions for public-centric initiatives through the startup ecosystem in Tamil Nadu.
“The program will enable startups to collaborate with the industry to build public sector-focused solutions using generative AI, and will solicit and shortlist startups building solutions for government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors operating in the AI, generative AI, and deep-tech space,” AWS said in a statement.
Speaking on the collaboration, Sunil PP, Lead – Channels and Alliances, Public Sector, AWS India said the tie-up will “aim to nurture a startup community that has core capabilities and strengths in generative AI, accelerate innovation using generative AI, and help public sector organisations implement solutions that can create positive and scalable impact in society.”
Set up at Anna University in Chennai, iTNT was established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Information Technology and Digital Services Department along with industry support.
AWS said the hub will provide mentorship to founders emerging from incubation programs of more than 570 engineering colleges affiliated with Anna University. Moreover, startups in incubation would also be able to access research opportunities for industry collaboration, sectoral guidance to drive market disruption, and funding avenues.
Further, startups will get up to $10,000 in AWS credits to build their solutions using over 240 services on AWS including generative AI services and solutions such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, Amazon SageMaker, AWS Trainium, AWS Inferentia, etc.
AWS said it will also look at onboarding startups to the AWS Partner Network (APN), subject to the fulfilment of eligibility criteria, to help them with product acceleration, and market access and expansion.
“Collaborating with a global technology leader like AWS gives us access to the latest technology, innovation methodologies, and best practices, and enables startups to jumpstart their innovation and growth journey with subject-matter expertise on cloud and generative AI,” said Vanitha Venugopal, CEO, iTNT Hub.