AP set to become electronics hub of the country : Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The new Andhra Pradesh has the potential to become the electronics manufacturing hub of the country in the coming years and both the Centre and the State Governments are striving hard to realise the objective, according to Union IT, Electronics and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

He was speaking here on Thursday after laying the foundation stone for the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) centre to be set up here 30 acres at a cost of Rs. 80 crore. 'It is a research institute under my ministry which undertakes high-end research in electro-magnetic interference and related areas and such research has many defence as well as civilian applications,' he explained.

The Union Minister said that already four electronic manufacturing clusters had been sanctioned for AP and one more was in process. In response to the request made earlier by the Chief Minister, N. Chadrababu Naidu, for an IT investment region (ITIR) in the State, Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Centre was revisiting the ITIR policy and after the formulation of the new policy the request of the AP Chief Minister would be considered.

In response to another request of the CM, he said the National Informatics Centre (NIC) would also be set up in the new state of AP as the one in Hyderabad was serving the united AP.

The minister said e-commerce was growing by leaps and bounds in the country and the post offices in the country were being digitalised to meet the demand. 'An e-commerce centre will be established in Guntur and a new BSNL telephone exchange will be set up at Amaravati, the new capital of AP, as soon the capital starts functioning,' he announced.

In the presence of the Union MInister, the State Chief Minister and Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, a memorandum of understanding was also signed on the occasion for setting up a an IT incubation centre at Siripuram Junction in Vizag city jointly by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) and the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) at a total cost of Rs. 62.70 crore. The VUDA would provide the land valued at Rs. 16.7 crore free of cost and the STPI would bear the rest of the cost (Rs. 46 crores). The incubation centre, expected to be ready by April 2018, is projected to provide jobs to 2,500 and achieve IT exports of Rs. 300 crore. Roughly, 50 small IT units may come up in the centre.

HBL