Chandrababu Naidu's Silicon Dreams
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s penchant for Internet literacy and faith in the digital future is on the rise.
On September 29, his government signed a historic memorandum of understanding with Google to develop Telugu Internet and launch a series of initiatives to transform the state into digital Andhra Pradesh in record time.
He wants the state to grow as fast as Google and develop the port city of Visakhapatnam as a Information Technology (IT) hub at the same pace.
Given his track record, Naidu possesses thinking big, determination and meticulous planning.
"We want to become the first state to embrace Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of "Digital India" and set an example for other states to follow,” declared the chief minister after signing a slew of MOUs with Google and other IT companies. "I will personally monitor the progress.”
His grand plan is to ride on the Telugu Internet to connect all 70,000 women self help groups in the state, in three years and, possibly, build on what could emerge as a staunch support vote bank.
The women’s groups have a corpus of around Rs 7,000 crore, which if tied up with Google, can change the lives of the women for the better.
For this, several other initiatives have to take off. These include developing the Telugu font, keyboards, content and increasing access to government websites besides scaling up the Telugu Internet to throw open windows of opportunities for entrepreneurship.
To achieve this, Google will help the government make its websites mobile ready and accessible in Telugu, promote Internet safety among children and government officials, improve and get more local language content online and promote digital literacy among women, and help small and medium businesses gain from the Internet economy.
Sensitising all about the economic benefits of Internet and promoting its adoption among women and children, besides small and medium businesses, is a challenge.
Naidu is hopeful of leveraging on how he used IT to woo the middle class during his previous record nine year tenure as chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh to create a huge impact.
His goal is to ensure that each family has at least one computer literate member and an entrepreneur.
For this, the state is to swiftly develop a showcase symbol Signature Tower on the lines of Cyber Towers in Hyderabad that spawned the expansive growth of IT companies in what is known as Cyberabad today.
This is to come up on Hill No 3 of Rushikonda in the picturesque Madhurawada IT Special Economic Zone, which has the twin natural advantage of a view of the sea as well as green capped hills. The state has announced incentives on land rentals and prices and introduced a single window system for early clearances.
It is also to ensure uninterrupted power supply to these companies. The government has signed MOUs with Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Sameer, Tessolve and MobME, for setting up facilities in Visakahpatnam.
Industry is optimistic. Co-founder and executive vice chairman of Infosys Kris Gopalakrishnan feels that he has no doubt that Naidu would be as good as his word in developing the IT sector in the new state.
MobME Wireless Solutions CEO Sanjay Vijay Kumar hopes to develop 1,000 start-ups in the state by tapping student talent and encouraging entrepreneurship among them in the next five years.
The state is expecting an investment of seven billion dollars in the IT and electronics sectors over the next five years on the back of these initiatives. It is planning to create a five million sq ft space in
Visakhapatnam alone and a total of ten million sq ft space in Vijayawada, Kakinada, Tirupati and Anantapur to set up new IT companies over the next four to five years.
For a quick beginning, the Sunrise Startup, powered by the state government and the Startup Village, Kochi, has opened with 14 companies being allocated space. It is expected to bring in an investment of Rs 200 crore and create 6,000 jobs for a modest opening.
Students with an idea can come to the Sunrise Startup and get it incubated and once it is developed into a product, they can move out and set up their own enterprise.
Sunrise Startup would invite IT professionals and successful entrepreneurs to interact with the students and aspiring entrepreneurs and mentor them.
What Naidu is betting on – developing the state on the lines of Silicon Valley – involves starting virtually from scratch as much of the IT and IT enabled services companies in the undivided Andhra Pradesh are now a part of Telangana by virtue of its location in and around Hyderabad.
He points out repeatedly that it took him nine years to put Hyderabad on the global map and is confident of doing the same with Visakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh in four years. Except that he will have to raise the sales pitch even if it may sound shrill.
This is, perhaps why, when he travels out, Naidu proclaims that his government would provide all support to make Visakhapatnam the second financial capital of the country, after Mumbai, and the number one mega metropolis along the eastern sea board.
If what is the third largest city on the east coast, after Kolkata and Chennai, is to blossom – Visakhapatnam should be known as the "City of Destiny", as former mayor and former chairman of the Bar Council of India DV Subba Rao puts it.