Bill-Naidu meeting to open gates to E-governance in state

Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna will also call on Bill Gates.

This is Naidu’s third meeting with Gates. They met first in 1997 when the Microsoft founder visited India and agreed to set up his company’s first development centre outside Redmond in Hyderabad. Naidu again met him in Redmond.

According to sources in the government, the proposed E-governance institute is aimed at training not only government staff but also others who show interest in the subject.

In order to introduce electronic governance, government officials and staff need to be trained in about 300 to 500 applications. The proposed institute would take care of training, programme development and applications.

The Chief Minister is expected to ask Microsoft to play a role in pushing APWide Area Network (APWAN) to connect all the 1,124 mandals in the state. All district headquarters are already linked to the state capital.

Andhra Pradesh is planning to harness IT in promoting distance education and primary health care. The Chief Minister is likely to request Gates to developnecessary programming and networking for the two areas so that it could eventually lead to consolidating E-governance.

The Chief Minister will also be explaining to Gates the steps being takenby his government to popularise Internet in the country and the state. Naidu, as co-convener of the IT Task Force at the national level, is one of the prime mover of reforms in the Telecom sector.

Sources say that there may not be any proposal for a tie-up between AP government and Microsoft for the time being. “AP is adopting an open bidding policy in awarding contracts in IT sector,” a top official told The Indian Express.

There is an euphoria in Hyderabad over Naidu’s meeting with Gates.“The meeting will strengthen Microsoft’s ties with AP in all aspects and bring more opportunities for our software professionals in the US,” says T. Hanuman Chowdary, advisor to the state government on IT.

Hyderabad Software Exporters Association president J.A. Chowdary says, “We hopes Naidu will take up with Gates the expansion of Microsoft Development Centre in Hyderabad to provide more jobs to Indians in India.”