Enter Olive, to check visa records the laptop way

The first copies of the ADBS, termed Olive (On-Line Information Verification Engine) were formally handed over to US Consul General Michele Sison by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at a media conference here on Friday.

Explaining the advantages of Olive, software technology park of India director J AChoudary, who headed the multi-agency project team, said that the system was designed to curb the malpractices in obtaining visas. Once the ADBS is networked to the US Consul General Office at Chennai, the Consulate officials will be able to issue visas instantly after verifying the certificates with the databank available with them, he added.

Choudary said that the ADBS would be updated every year while the integrity of the data would be verified by three different persons. Besides, a password system has been introduced to ensure confidentiality.

Sison described the Olive as the first `milestone’ towards a major collaboration between the Andhra Pradesh Government and the United States of America in the software field. She said that Hyderabad was fast emerging as "Cyberabad", considering its potential for the growth of IT industry.

"Andhra Pradesh sends most software professionals to US and therefore, the US Consulate has decided to choose the state as a model agency to implement the Olive programme,"she said.

Meanwhile, Chandababu Naidu hoped that with the creation of Olive, genuine software professionals from the state would get employment opportunities in the US. He said that the city would be promoted as a `knowledge society’. Once the Hi-Tec City is completed in another two months, the software industry in the state will grow considerably, he said. "In fact, it was my wish that Hyderabad should compete with Silicon Valley," the Chief Minister said.