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AP launches e-services project in rural areas

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The Andhra Pradesh government has launched yet another e-initiative for its citizens in the rural areas -- Online Transaction Processing.

The new e-services project for the benefit of the common man was inaugurated in the presence of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in Hyderabad on Thursday night.

The OLTP project aims to provide an integrated G2C (government to consumer) interface for information and services. Two concurrent pilot projects have been taken up, at Bhongir mandal in Nalgonda district and Shadnagar mandal in Mahbubnagar district. This service provides a single-window for information and services for the rural population.

A 3-way video-conference was held between Hyderabad, Nalgonda town and Bollepally village to demonstrate the functionality of OLPT pilot project.

IT special secretary Ajay P Sawhney said the project aimed at providing a one-stop shop for citizen services at the village level through multipurpose kiosks and enabling online updation of the core data of land and citizens through the use of PDAs and information kiosks at the village level.

Other core features of OLTP include inter-departmental data sharing through horizontal and vertical integration, enabling web-based citizen interface for delivery of services and access to information and integration with other legacy systems in place already.

Sawhney said OLTP provided a cost-effective method of networking horizontally and vertically across departments and across mandal, district and state levels while conforming to the highest standards of security of systems, transactions and data sharing. "The OLTP system is a very user friendly with a Telugu interface to make it easier to access for the common man," he added.

Earlier, making a presentation before Bill Gates on the e-governance initiatives of the AP government, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the state has pioneered e-governance projects such as AP Online, SmartGov (at the state secretariat), CARD project in Registration Department, citizens data (multi-purpose household survey data base on 76 million citizens), one-stop services for citizens called e-Seva, and computerisation of land records of 25 million holdings in the state.

Recalling his first meeting with Bill Gates in Delhi in 1997, Naidu said he had sought collaboration between AP Technology Services and Microsoft, participation in the Indian Institute of Information Technology and setting up a Microsoft Development Centre at Hyderabad. Bill Gates had responded positively to his requests at that time. The MoU for collaboration between AP Technology Services has been recently extended for a further period of five years. Microsoft Corp established the India Development Centre in Hyderabad in 1998 and also donated quarter of a million dollars for the IIIT.

Giving an overview of the growth of IT sector in the state, Naidu said the software exports have grown from $71 million in 1997-98 to $128 million in 1998-99; from $235 million in 1999-2000 to $448 million in 2000-01 and $589 million in 2001-02. The growth in ITES has been more rapid with 323 per cent growth last year and 385 per cent growth in the first half of this year to Rs 6.9 billion, compared to Rs 1.63 billion in the corresponding first half of the previous year.

The chief minister said Andhra Pradesh has become the most wired state in the country with the commissioning of digital networks. The state also has the largest pool of skilled manpower and it has drawn up the vision to make AP a knowledge state with e-empowered citizens. The state has taken up networking projects for schools, primary agricultural cooperative societies, HR management system, etc.

The state was committed to use technology as a strategic tool for tackling poverty, hunger and disease and to ensure leapfrog socio-economic development.

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