Technology major Microsoft is close to inking a deal with the Punjab government, wherein the State will use software solutions to aid education, agriculture and for the healthcare needs of citizens.

This will also include setting up proof-of-concept (POC) solutions to apply its Azure Machine Learning and Advanced Visualisation tool in these fields, said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India.

“These solutions will address specific problems within each of the fields to achieve better outcomes for the State. It will use the lab method for data gathering, analysis, predictive analysis and policy planning,” he said.

The company is in advanced stages of inking this deal. This comes close on the heels of the Redmond-based tech major bagging a deal from Andhra Pradesh to offer technologies to improve delivery of public services in the State.

Similarly, the Tamil Nadu Election Commission used Microsoft’s cloud technology during the recently-concluded State elections, which included live streaming of polling process from 30,000 booths, covering around 6 crore voters.

The tech major is also looking at ways in which Skype can be integrated with Aadhaar so that a person does not have to be physically present to get his or her due.

Microsoft’s push is coming at a time when the company is upping the ante in terms of its offering for the Indian market — whether it is its language translation software Cortana or technology that forms the backbone for hospitals such as Narayana Health, which use it to improve thier customers’ experience.

Microsoft India’s R&D department has worked on tailoring its software language recognition software. “Cortana can answer a question in Hindi and work is on to get other languages onboard,” said Pramanik.

Key challenges

Sriram Rajamani, MD, Microsoft Research India, added that one of the challenges that the company sees is the way Indians speak. “Most Indians speak in a combination of languages simultaneously and we are working on solving it,” he said.

Industry watchers view these developments in the backdrop of companies, including start-ups and larger enterprises in the country, preferring to use Amazon’s cloud computing technologies, which are easier and quicker to deploy.

However, Microsoft says that around 4,600 start-ups in India are using its cloud infrastructure and 22 of India’s leading insurance companies use Office 365 and Azure.

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