From a 'SMART' (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent) administration, Andhra Pradesh will soon transform into an 'INFO-AGE' (Inclusive, Networked, Fast, Open, Accountable, Globally benchmarked and Efficient) government.

While the then government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu adopted the SMART theory in the mid-1990s, the current Rosaiah government is now setting into the 'Info-Age', with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) being the guiding principle for the two approaches.

The brain behind Info-age concept is Sameer Sharma, till recently the Principal Secretary of ICT Department and currently Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

"We will leverage ICT to achieve an INFO-AGE government. Our goal is to transform the state into a knowledge society and make available the benefits of ICT to all citizens, especially those in rural areas and living in poverty," Information Technology minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said.

Andhra Pradesh has been a pioneer in e-governance initiatives, under a tech-savvy Chandrababu Naidu between 1995 and 2004, while the state emerged as a leading IT destination in the country.

The state's IT exports that were just Rs 284 crore in 1997-98, shot up to Rs 32,509 crore in 2008-09. .
"On one hand we have embarked on implementation of various e-governance initiatives to help citizens gain one-stop access to information and government services while on the other thrust was placed on attracting huge investments into the ICT sector in the state. We are leveraging ICT tools to provide better, efficient, transparent and responsive services to the citizens," Reddy points out.

The most popular and successful e-governance initiative has been the e-Seva, which is a one-stop shop for citizens to access a host of services through Integrated Citizen Service Centres apart from the Internet.

Now, under the National E-governance Plan, the state government is setting up 4,687 ICT-enabled citizen services centres covering all the 23 districts and 1088 mandals under the Public-Private Partnership initiative.

"The objective is to provide all government and other value-added services to rural citizens in an integrated manner at one's doorstep and at an affordable price," the minister said.

Also, as part of the Info-age initiative, the state government is building a State Data Centre (SDC) in a 9,000 sq ft area in the AP financial district at Manikonda near Hyderabad.

The SDC will consolidate the major services and e-governance applications of various departments of the state government. Apart from the communication infrastructure, the SDC will also have separate infrastructure for network, management, security, storage and a disaster recovery set up.

"Our larger objective is to see that the benefit of ICT percolates to the last mile of the state and delivers services in a secure way to all citizens," Reddy summed up.