Chennai, Aug 13 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Information Technology department would soon launch the BharatNet programme in 12,534 villages panchayats of the state to improve connectivity in the rural areas.

In a statement on Friday, state IT minister Mano Thangaraj said the state would soon be transformed into a technology hub. The minister said that the major aim of the government was to improve the infrastructure that would lead to an increase in investments. He said that an increase in investments would create more jobs.

The Tamil Nadu government, according to the IT minister is planning to capitalise on the skilled manpower, infrastructure, competence and policies of the state to convert it into the Artificial Intelligence capital of the country.

The IT department in a study found that India is ranked eighth in the top ten countries of the world with over 4,000 AI patents being filed in the past five years.

ArRm Arun, President of Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), told IANS, "India is doing extremely well as far as Artificial Intelligence is concerned and the country has recorded the highest increase in the use of AI at 45 per cent during the pandemic. Major economies like the US recorded 35 per cent, the UK 23 per cent and Japan 28 per cent."

He said Tamil Nadu has the potential to become the IT capital of India with proper streamlining of available data, human intelligence and affordable computing power.