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Journalism of Courage
Hyderabad, Jan 8: Apart from heading the top three infotech companies in India what else do Wipro8217;s Azim Premji, NR Narayana Murthy of Infosys and Satyam8217;s Ramalinga Raju have in common? The three will soon join forces to steer Andhra Pradesh into the next century ahead of other states where implementation of IT for the common man is concerned.
Using the best of his persuasive skills cyber-CM N Chandrababu Naidu has managed to rope in the three to form an IT Steering Committee for AP ITSAP, a six-member think-tank for IT policy and e-governance in the state. The other three members will be the Nasscom president Dewang Mehta, former VSNL MD and now the AP CM8217;s IT advisor TH Choudhary apart from Naidu himself. In fact IT8217;s AP, as some of the senior government officials would like to have the steering committee known, is just the first of the four high-powered committees set in motion by Naidu.
The main brief for the IT8217;s AP will be to look at garnering infotech investments in the state and driving it towards total e-governance within two years, which the chief minister has set himself to achieve. In fact, if Naidu is to be believed, administration within the geographical area of capital city Hyderabad, which includes Secundrabad, would be totally digital within the next six months.
The first step towards this was the launch of the Twin Cities Integrated Network Services TWINS, a week-back providing access to 18 government services at a single point or cyber-kiosk through a network.
Altogether 44 applications from 12 departments like power, commercial and property taxes, permits and licences among others, have been identified implementation through TWINS.
quot;The objective is toultimately provide access to these services through wireless devices like cell phones and palm-tops using wireless application protocolsquot;, says Naidu8217;s principal secretary Randeep Sudan, who is also the brain behind most of the CM8217;s IT ideas.
