The Indian School of Business (ISB) will work with various economic departments of Andhra Pradesh for economic recovery and growth monitoring especially post Covid-19 with a focus on economic development and job creation in the state.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between the government of Andhra Pradesh through the AP Economic Development Board and the leading business school on Wednesday.

The areas of collaboration also include high-frequency high-resolution indicators for monitoring economic recovery in Andhra Pradesh, project on Visakhapatnam as an engine of growth, focus on the food processing sector in Rayalaseema, improving e-governance and data analytics, unshackling informal sector growth and reshaping skilling programs.

The AP Economic Development Board said the MoU will nurture a think tank by setting up 'GoAP-ISB Policy Lab', a public policy laboratory to drive evidence-based policy decisions. It aims to create a knowledge bank for strategic planning, policy analysis, data analytics, and action-research essential for sustaining high rates of growth and successful completion within the committed timelines with a focus on investment flows, their efficacy in terms of value addition, employment generation and wealth creation.

The lab, modeled on the lines of Policy Lab in the UK Cabinet, would enable greater synergistic functioning of departments and work towards the objective of economic monitoring, recovery, and development, it said.

AP Economic Development Board CEO, J.V.N. Subramanyam, and ISB Dean Prof Rajendra Srivastava exchanged the MoU in the presence of state Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy at a virtual event.

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