Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday made a strong pitch asking the Centre to declare Andhra Pradesh as a model State for implementing new age technologies like Internet of Things, cloud computing and data analytics. “We are in the forefront of implementing various technology-driven projects like IoT, e-Pragati [e-governance] and CM Dashboard [to monitor attendance and execution of various programmes]. We will become a role model for other States to replicate innovative projects if we are given model status,” he said.
Mr. Naidu was speaking after jointly inaugurating the 20th National Conference on e-Governance (NCEG) with Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu here. The two-day conference is jointly organised by the Union Ministries of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Electronics and IT, NASSCOM and the AP Electronics and IT Agency. Calling for smart governance by using people-centric technologies to simplify procedures and extending the benefits of various schemes to the remotest corner, he mentioned how they could implement the AP Fibre Grid project to provide Internet, TV and telephone with 50 Mbps speed to each household at an affordable cost by connecting the cables to the electric poles with an investment of Rs. 330 crore.
“Had we laid cables over-ground, it would have cost Rs. 5,000 crore,” he declared and claimed that “now AP is all set to emerge as a trend-setter in ensuring last mile connectivity in a short span.”
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‘Widen tax base’
Mr. Venkaiah Naidu regretted that in a country with a population of 133 crore, only 24 lakh submit returns showing an income of above Rs.10 lakh. “The tax net has to be widened so as to lower income tax rate.”
The Union Minister lauded the efforts of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu in encouraging digitalisation and recalled his contribution in building Cyberbad in Hyderabad when he was the Chief Minister of undivided AP. The Union Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8 demonetisation decision was transforming India from a cash economy to banking economy.
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Reiterating the NDA Government’s commitment to continue war on black money, he said between Rs.14 lakh crore to Rs.16 lakh crore, which was lying idle, had been brought back to banks as a fallout of demonetisation. “Now more funds can be spent on welfare measures and lowering of interest rate will lead to housing boom,” he stated.
Union Minister of State for PMO and North East Jitendra Singh, MoS for Science and Technology Y.S. Chowdary, Union Electronics and IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, AP IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy, NASSCOM president R. Chandrasekhar and others were present.