Express News Service By

VISAKHAPATNAM: With the launch of e-Pragati project, several IT firms, including HP and Cisco along with NASSCOM have unveiled their plans for the State. They all lauded the project, which would pave way for complete digitisation of governance.

HP India is all set to partner with the Andhra Pradesh government and sign an MoU with the government next month to offer services in health and education.

HP India MD Neelam Dhawan said that four e-health centres and 10 mobile health centres would be established by the computer manufacturer to bring specialist doctors from urban areas to patients in rural areas. “Cloud technology and Internet will be used to connect patients with doctors,” she said.

Cisco India president Dinesh Malkani said that the company was planning to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) over a stretch of 5 km to nurture and boost local talent. Tentatively, the Centre of Excellence is likely to be established in Vijayawada. The company would also connect about 5,000 students in the government schools with some of the best teachers world-wide.

Govt Cautioned on Challenges

NASSCOM chairman BVR Mohan Reddy and its president R Chandrasekhar who complimented the AP government for taking advantage of technology for development, had a word of caution about the challenges in procurement and payments. He expressed concern over the delay in contract payments to Indian IT services firms by the government. According to them, all the State governments along with the Central government owe about Rs 5,000 crore to IT firms which in turn is forcing the latter to go slow in bidding for various government projects.

While Mohan Reddy asked the AP government to make use of the ‘Internet of Things’ as a social leveller, Chandrasekhar said cyber security was also a matter of great concern and offered to assist the AP government with the help of NASSCOM’s cyber security force.