Ravi Shankar Prasad wants Andhra Pradesh to be developed as a hub for electronics manufacturing

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, has said that Andhra Pradesh would be developed as a major electronics hub. He also announced several initiatives planned for this initiative.

"Andhra Pradesh would become a major electronics manufacturing hub, as four electronics clusters have already been sanctioned for the state, and the fifth one is in process," Prasad said.

He was present at the foundation ceremony for Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) Centre for Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) in Visakhapatnam.

"The SAMEER, a Centre for Electromagnetic Environmental Effects, is an autonomous R&D institution under the Department of Electronics and Information and Technology (DEITY), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT). It is one of the most advanced institutions of the Government of India," he said.

The organization is headquartered at Mumbai but operates through four other cities in the country, viz Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati and Visakhapatnam.

He also said that the permanent building of the institution would soon be constructed in 15 acres area in Gambhiram village in Anandapuram.

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu had requested to set up Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) in Andhra Pradesh, which Prasad said would be considered once the Union government formulates the ITIR policy.

Talking of BJP regime’s fruitful impact on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), he said that it was a profit-making entity till 2004, but Congress-led Union government made it a loss-making body in 10 years.

"In the last 17 months, the BSNL has again started making profit. It has earned operating profit of Rs 672 crore," he said.

He added that Andhra would also have a National Informatics Centre (NIC), besides having a separate BSNL telephone exchange for the under-construction state capital Amaravati in Guntur district.

He added that since e-commerce is on the rise, post offices were being digitalised, for which an e-commerce centre would be set up in Guntur district, apart from creation of e-commerce parcel hubs at Visakhapatnam, Vijaywada and Tirupati.

He said that mobile phone manufacturing units have already come up at Sri City in the state, and added that many more electronic items manufacturing units would follow suit. Two lakh panchayats in the country would be connected to optic fiber cable network, he added.

The minister, while asserting that India would develop as Knowledge Economy in the time to come, gave the formula - IT + IT = IT. Elaborating on the formula, he said, IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow).

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