VIJAYAWADA: Adviser to the state government on e-governance, electronics & IT J. Satyanarayana has requested Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar to provide the infrastructure to set up a Cloud Economic Zone (CEZ), in an area of 500 to 1,000 acres, in Andhra Pradesh.
This was raised at the Collectors’ Conference. Mr Kumar responded positively.
Mr Satyanarayana also urged Mr Kumar to look into the possibility of higher subsidies in bandwidth tariff in addition to a power holiday for a period of at least ten years.
"Only then can the concept of CEZ work out", Mr Satyanarayana stated.
Asked about the requisite permissions, the Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman said that the State will not need any central permission for setting up of CEZ. However, he said that the State Government needs to check the Telecom policy of the Union Government before surging ahead.
Later, speaking to Deccan Chronicle, the Advisor (e-Governance, Electronics &IT), Mr. Satyanarayana said, “Data is going to be a crucial issue in the days to come and if the CEZ has to be developed in a proper manner, subsidies and power holidays are essential."
In fact, the Ministry of IT has already finalised the cloud hub policy. The ministry has found that by using encryption, information is less accessible to hackers or to anyone not authorised to view it.
Accordingly the policy has been framed to protect the Government related documents.
The IT ministry is looking at the possibility of incorporating most of the cloud based services with different security settings, in the policy, ministry sources have pointed out.
This server free cloud hub policy will have a sound ecosystem, and would store the confidential data of all the departments. KPMG Consultants are engaged in designing and executing the cloud hub policy that would come into effect after the initial steps.
Niti Aayog’s support sought
The state government intends to form a task force to coordinate with the Niti Aayog as it is the bridge between the Union and state governments. A senior IAS officer shared that the special task force will monitor activities resulting from requests by various State Departments to Niti Aayog.
Niti Aayog, formed by the Modi government, after scrapping the Planning Commission, is playing a key role in development of the states. Unlike the Planning Commission, Niti Aayog does not get involved in financial matters or disbursements to states as that is looked after by the finance ministry. Instead it is truly an advisory body with all the chief ministers and the administrators of the Union Territories in its governing council. It strives to reduce the disparities between the states. It suggests the best practices for empowering the state governments socio-economically and politically and even recommends Union government to support a state.
For a newborn State like AP, Niti Aayog's support is very critical. Compared to other states AP is lagging behind in terms of per capita income in almost all sectors. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, at the Collectors' meet requested Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar to aid its development.
In fact many departmental Secretaries sought support of Niti Aayog at the conference. Home Secretary Ms. Anuradha appealed to Mr. Kumar to consider the financial and other special assistances.
