Andhra govt inks MoU with ISB to drive economic growth

With the objective of economic recovery and growth monitoring post COVID-19 phase, the Andhra Pradesh government, through the Economic Development Board, entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian School of Business to work with various economic departments in the state.

With the objective of economic recovery and growth monitoring during post COVID-19 phase, the Andhra Pradesh government, through the Economic Development Board, inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian School of Business to work with various economic departments in the state.

The MoU has been inked with a special focus on economic development and job creation in Andhra Pradesh.

In addition, the areas of collaboration will also include 'High Frequency, High-Resolution Indicators for monitoring economic recovery in Andhra Pradesh', project on 'Visakhapatnam' as an engine of growth, focus on food processing sector in Rayalaseema, improving e-governance and data analytics, unshackling informal sector growth and reshaping the skilling programs.

A "GoAP-ISB Policy lab" will be set up, which will function as a public policy laboratory for evidence-based policy decisions and with the aim to create a knowledge bank for strategic planning, policy and data analysis for sustaining high rates of growth and successful completion of projects.

JVN Subramanyam, CEO, Economic Development Board and Professor Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB exchanged an MoU in the presence of Mekapati Goutham Reddy, Minister for Industries, Commerce, IT, and SDT in a virtual event.

"We are working with ISB for the past few months on identifying various areas of collaboration. Today we are on-boarding ISB as our knowledge partner to work on various initiatives in skill development, e-governance, turning Vishakhapatnam into a growth engine, improving value addition in food processing etc," Goutham said.

"Our 'GoAP - ISB Policy Lab' is an initiative modelled in the lines of Policy Lab in the UK. We intend to generate data using randomised control trials (RCTs) and gather evidence to measure the impact of our policies and drive our policy decisions based on strong research evidence. This is truly cutting edge in the field of economics and public policy and the last year's Nobel Prize winners were recognised for pioneering this experimental (RCT) approach to development economics," the minister added.

( With inputs from ANI )