TELANGANA—How India’s Youngest State is Leveraging Digital

A conference was conducted on Jan 31st in Hyderabad to celebrate the success of Telangana’s digital initiatives and to understand the next steps that the state plans to take for their digital journey

The youngest state of India, Telangana has been carving a name for itself in India’s digital history with an array of consistent digital initiatives executed successfully by various state ministries and departments. To celebrate this success, a gala awards ceremony and conference was organized on Jan 31st in Hyderabad, by CMR in association with HP Inc. and Coeus Age Consulting. The conference not only recognized and awarded top digital initiatives of the state, but also encouraged a dialog between govt. and private sector on how to take the next leap forward, securely. The conference, which was attended by senior officials from the govt. of Telangana, had many interesting sessions and a panel discussion that revealed many interesting insights on how to do this successfully. Here are the highlights.

Fibre and Water Come Together to Every Home

Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary-IT, E&C, Industries and Commerce, Govt. of Telangana, delivering the opening keynote address.

Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Principle Secretary, IT&C, Industries and Commerce, Govt. of Telangana in his opening leadership keynote, talked about how the state has been progressing steadily on its digital path. Shri Ranjan shared interesting initiatives that Telangana is working upon, like T-Fibre that leverages the trenches dug for Mission Bhagiratha (water grid) to lay optic fiber cables. “This would provide network access to all 83.58 lakh households in Telangana”, he added.

Digital Tech is Essential to Govern a Connected Society

“Digital technologies are revolutionizing governments across the world, and it’s no different in India”, said Anil Chopra, VP-Research and Consulting, CMR in his welcome address. As everything’s getting inter-connected, be it people, systems, machinery or devices, digital is becoming a way of life for everyone. “This calls for a need to use digital technologies to help the govt. manage the connected world”, he added.

Need for Creating Secure Environment is Essential for Govt. Initiatives

While it’s important to use digital technologies to govern a connected population, it’s equally important to create a secure environment to execute various govt. initiatives. HP Inc’s Nikunj Thakkar, delivered an impactful session on how major security breaches can happen in the office if endpoint devices like printers and PCs are not secured or left unattended. He also demonstrated how this can be done by showing a video on security breach of a hospital.

e-Marketplace for Govt.

HP Inc’s head of the GeM business, Shantanu Chatterjee gave a session of how GeM (Govt. e-Marketplace), is an end-to-end online market place for central and state govt. ministries and departments can digitally transform Govt. procurement by using the same.

Telangana, the Most Consistent in Digital Initiatives

“Telangana is one of the nine leading digital states of India and ranks 7 out of 29 states and seven UTs of the country”, said said Dr. Kapil Dev Singh, Founder and CEO, Coeus Age, in his research keynote address. This was based on a study conducted by Coeus Age’s govt. initiative, Maximum Governance. The study also formed the basis to arrive at Gems of Digital Telangana awards that were presented at the conference. “Telangana is the most consistent of all states in finding itself among the top 11 (of 36 states/ UTs) on 9 out of 14 Mission Mode Projects (or domains) that were considered for the research study”, he added. It demonstrates a broad-based focus on digital across domains that are of interest to citizens of the state.

Taking the Next Secure Leap Forward

A panel discussion on how to take the Next Secure Leap Forward. The panelists comprised of (from L to R): Shri G T Venkateshwar Rao, IRS, Commissioner, ESD, Shri T. Chiranjeevulu, IAS, Metropolitan Commissioner, HMDA and MD, HGCL, Dr. KD Singh (moderator), Founder and CEO, Coeus Age, Shri C V Anand IPS, Commissioner, Civil Supplies, and Shri Nikunj Thakkar, HP Inc.

The conference had a panel discussion where the panelists comprised of senior govt officials, HP Inc., and moderated by Dr. Kapil Dev Singh. The panelists discussed governance priorities for Telangana and imperatives for IT and Digital. The panelists comprised of Sri. T. Chiranjeevulu, IAS-Metropolitan Commissioner, HMDA and Managing Director HGCL, Sri C. V Anand-IPS, Commissioner, Civil Supplies, Sri. G T Venkateshwar Rao, IRS-Commissioner, ESD, and Sri Nikunj Thakkar, Country Lead-Solution Consulting, Managed Content Services, HP Inc.

Gems of Digital Telangana Awards

The state of Telangana was presented with the LEADING DIGITAL STATE OF INDIA Award. It was received by Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT, E&C and Industry, Government of Telangana. 16 other path breaking digital initiatives by the govt. won the prestigious Gems of Digital Telangana Awards that were conferred upon during the celebrations. To know more about the specific awards, click here.

The event was graced by very senior government officers like Shri T Chiranjeevulu (MC, HMDA and MD, HGCL), Shri Ronal Rose (Collector, Mahbubnagar district), Shri Surendra Mohan (Collector, Suryapeth district), Dr. T K Sridevi (Commissioner, CDMA), Shri C V Anand (Commissioner, Civil Supplies), Shri G T Venkataswara Rao (Commissioner, ESD and MD, TSTS), Shri G Vidyasagar Reddy (MD, Sthreenidhi), Smt. Abhilasha Bisht (DG, TSSP BN), Shri KSRC Murthy (Director, Treasury and Accounts), and Shri Pendyala Sninivas (Jt Secy, eGov).