AP Making Efforts To Provide Net Access To Every Home

The Andhra Pradesh government is making a concerted efforts to provide internet connectivity to every home at affordable rates by building an OFC (optical fibre cable) network throughout the state, according to Dinesh Kumar, Managing Director, AP FiberNet.

He was participating in a panel discussion on digital initiatives by the AP Government as a part of the ongoing Vizag Fintech Festival on Wednesday.

He said the OFC network covers 23,800 km route across the 13 districts of the state and that they wanted to provide net access to every home, entertainment through cable TV channels and also provide telecom facilities at very cheap rates by using the OFC network. “Connectivity is crucial. There is no point in talking about going digital without connectivity. We have built up the infrastructure,” Dinesh Kumar said.

Many opportunities

Dinesh Kumar said the state government had built up the e-pragati (meaning electronic progress in Telugu) platform to offer various government services. “It offers immense opportunities to start-ups to make use of the various data sets we have created, and we will provide all opportunities to start-ups as well as established companies in the field to come up with innovative solutions to the problems of governance we encounter,” he said.

Vijayanand, the Principal Secretary (IT), AP Government, said the state government was offering various incentives to IT companies and all clearances would be given within 21 days through a single window system. “There are no hassles whatsoever and our State ranks No. 1 in the ‘ease of doing business’. Come and make the best use of the opportunities available,” he added.

Dr. B.K Murthy, of the Union Ministry of IT and Electronics, said the Union Government was thinking of taking steps for data protection and a special act was in the offing for the purpose and “therefore there need not be any misgivings on the count. We will take all steps for data protection and data security.”

J.A Chowdary, IT adviser to the Government of AP, said, “The Chief Minister Mr. Chandrababu Naidu is tech-savvy and pro-active in welcoming new technologies and we want to leverage the technologies to make life easier and more comfortable to the common man.” – The Hindu Business Line