Vijayawada: The state govt signed an MoU with YouTube and Tezaract USA Inc. for the establishment of a ‘Creator Academy’. The agreement was signed in the presence of the minister for ITE&C and HRD, Nara Lokesh, in Singapore on Tuesday. The academy will serve as a centre of excellence for creative content development.According to the MoU, Google will support the curriculum, technology, and expertise, while Tezaract will handle infrastructure and daily operations. YouTube will provide industry knowledge, channel support, and training to help students grow their digital presence. The MoU was signed by Teja Dharma, president of Tezaract, and Bhaskar Katamaneni, secretary for IT, GoAP, in the presence of Lokesh and others.“I am confident that this partnership with YouTube will unleash and harness the creative energies of Andhra Pradesh’s youth and make us leaders in the digital economy. This will empower India’s creative economy,” said Lokesh.On the third day of the Singapore tour, Lokesh also met Google Cloud’s director, Drew Brains, and requested the setup of a chip designing centre in AP. As Google already signed two MoUs with AP for setting up a data centre and for skill development in AI, Lokesh requested the establishment of a chip design facility away from China and Taiwan.In the meeting with the managing director of Murata Electronics Pvt Ltd, Hiroyuki Niwa, Lokesh explained the opportunities to set up electronics component manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh. With a dedicated policy offering attractive incentives and better connectivity with ports and airports, AP is ideal for electronics manufacturing, said Lokesh. Later, he also met Carrier executive director, Arun Bhatia, and requested the setup of a cold chain logistics hub in AP.As ST Tele Media Investments plans to double its operations in India, Lokesh requested the setup of a green energy data centre in Visakhapatnam, which is poised to become a data city with a slew of investments into the sector, including Google. Lokesh met ST Tele Media Investments (India) head, Ritu Mehlawat, and requested collaboration with Andhra Pradesh. Lokesh said that the state govt is keen to make AP a strategic destination for the Asia market. He said that the govt is ready to extend full cooperation to companies willing to invest in IT, electronics, and semiconductors.
