Anna University to house Tamil Nadu's tech-solutions hub, iTNT

The Tamil Nadu government's proposed i-Tamil Nadu Technology (iTNT) hub will come up on the Anna University campus. The announcement for the hub to be set up in Chennai came in this year’s budget, and the government had earmarked Rs 54.61 crore towards it.

According to sources from the Information Technology department, the decision to set up the hub on the Anna University campus was taken as the academia there would help create a proper ecosystem for the hub. Besides, the students on the campus will also be benefitted from it.

"iTNT has been conceptualised to solve complex challenges in different sectors, be it agriculture, health, or education, using emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics, and block chain. The hub will function as an accelerator-cum-incubator for start-ups working in the deep technologies sector. Anna University is an apt place for it," said a senior official of the IT department.

"The university has expert faculty members, and quality research work is being carried out by students of various departments. The talent pool will definitely contribute to the hub and simultaneously the students of the university will get exposure," added the official.

The university has already handed over constructed buildings, sprawling over 25,000 square feet on the campus, to the IT department for setting up the hub.

"In the last few years, we have consciously created a lot of space inside the campus to promote industry-based interaction and collaboration. So, when the IT department enquired about the infrastructure, we handed over the constructed space to them," said Vice-Chancellor R Velraj.  

However, he said he doesn’t know how the space will be utilised by the department. With infrastructure ready, the IT department plans to make the iTNT hub functional soon.

"The IT industry is booming after the pandemic and we need to start the iTNT hub soon to encash the opportunity. Getting constructed infrastructure means we have managed to save a lot of time. Now, we will focus on other parameters of the hub," said another official of the IT department.