'Internet for all Andhra villages within two years'

The Andhra Pradesh government is taking initiatives to provide internet bandwidth connectivity to all villages in the state in the next two years.

The state has also set itself a stiff target of achieving a 30 per cent share in the total software exports from the country, in the next two years.

Speaking at a seminar, jointly organised by the Computer Society of India, and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, J C Mohanty, principal secretary (information technology and communication), Government of Andhra Pradesh, said: "We are planning to provide 10 gigabyte connectivity from Hyderabad to all district headquarters, one gigabyte connectivity to all mandal headquarters from district headquarters and 100 megabyte connectivity from mandal headquarters to the villages. This will increase the internet usage in the state and the government's aim is to ensure that internet connectivity is accessible to a majority of the people in the state at the lowest possible cost."

According to a Nasscom report, the country's software exports was slated to touch $50 billion in the next two years.

The state government is, therefore, creating infrastructure facilities for software industries and providing the required bandwidth apart from training manpower to capture at least 30 per cent of the country's software exports business, he said.

Andhra Pradesh, being a pioneer in implementing e-governance, is going to set up another 1,000 e-Seva centres by the end of July, and within five months 5,000 e-Seva centres will commence operations, he said.

The government has saved Rs 200 crore during the last fiscal because of e-procurement, and at present almost all the state government departments are using computers, he said.

In the current scenario of globalisation, all companies and departments should take up integrated computer systems and enterprise resource planning to reduce process time, production cost, inventory cost and optimum utilisation of manpower, and these systems will enhance efficiency in different levels, he said.

According to Nasscom, enterprise integration, packaged implementation and support is an $18 billion opportunity by 2005 globally, he added.

Citing an example, Mohanty said that earlier the staff at the Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation used to take 60 days for the appraisal of a single loan application.

Now, because of an integrated computer system, the staff was able to complete the appraisal within a day, he said.