Andhra Pradesh and Telangana: E-mpowered States

E-governance is the watchword in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, both of which have launched unique digital initiatives.

- E. Kumar Sharma

All Indian states are moving towards increasing e-governance, but some states are moving faster than others. Among the most proactive are the neighbour states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Andhra Pradesh

On December 20, 2014, six months after Telangana was hived off from Andhra Pradesh, the N. Chandrababu Naidu-led government in Andhra launched its ambitious E-office project. The objective was no less than to render every single government file in digital form, making government offices totally paperless. It is a massive work in progress, with daily updates on the number of files thus converted available at http://core.ap.gov.in/ CMDashBoard/Index.aspx.

Starting with 20 departments, the project has rapidly expanded, with the current number of digitized files standing at 9,78,376 (on December 21). Files of at least two districts, Krishna and West Godavari have been completely transferred online. “All ministers and concerned officials can access the files at any time, even on their iPads, even when they are on tour,” says J. Satyanarayana, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government. “They can then act on them right away. This ensures both greater transparency and faster disposal of files.” The complete project, expected to cost around ₹15 crore, has been created and is being managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), but is customised for Andhra Pradesh. A government order (GO) issued in November has directed that a Single File System (SFS) must be employed, so that as files are digitised, the entire picture relating to any particular subject is available on just one file.