Tamil Nadu govt comes out with policy on artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami unveiled the government policies relating to artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity on Saturday and said that he envisions making the state a pioneer in innovation and knowledge capital in the country.

CM Palaniswami released the Tamil Nadu Safe and Ethical Artificial Intelligence Policy 2020, Tamil Nadu Blockchain Policy 2020, and Tamil Nadu Cyber Security Policy 2020 at the ‘Connect 2020’ conference organized by Confederation of Indian Industry through video conferencing.

With this, Tamil Nadu has become the first state in the country to have in place a blockchain policy that will be a game changer in governance. It will help in transparent and better delivery of government’s social and economic welfare measures along with streamlining Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Citizen (G2C) workflows, the press release said.

The Cyber Security Policy seeks to protect the government’s database and websites that provide services to the people, according to the statement.

The Artificial Intelligence Policy aims to improve existing governance workflows and processes and adopting AI in the government’s Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive. The government also endeavours to encourage research and development in AI by academia, start-ups, private and public enterprises.

The Chief Minsiter said that Tamil Nadu continues to be the preferred destination for IT and IT-enabled services sector in India. 42 Memorandum of Understandings, involving an investment of Rs 31,464 crore, were signed even during the lockdown period that is expected to create 69,712 jobs.