Minister for HRD, IT and Electronics Nara Lokesh on Tuesday said 95 leading companies had so far proposed investments to the tune of ₹1 lakh crore in the State’s IT, electronics, global capability centres (GCC) and data centre sectors.

Addressing a review meeting with officials of IT, Electronics and Real Time Governance Society (RGTS) at his residence in Undavalli, the Minister said that the authorities should expedite issue of necessary permissions and facilitate infrastructure so that these firms can quickly establish their operations. He urged them to work towards generating 10 lakh jobs over the next four years through expansion of IT, electronics, data centres and GCCs.

Responding to the information given by the officials that the land allotment process to companies like TCS and Congnizant in Visakhapatnam had been completed, Mr. Lokesh directed them to ensure swift commencement of their operations.

Referring to his recent visit to Bengaluru, where he signed MoUs with ANSR and Sattva Groups, the Minister said that their projects in Andhra Pradesh would create 35,000 jobs. He also wanted the officials to create co-working spaces across the 26 district centres for small enterprises coming to the State.

He said the proposed Ratan Tata Innovation Hub, which is being developed to foster modern innovation and to promote startups in the State, would be inaugurated soon and asked the officials to take necessary steps to establish regional spoke centres in Visakhapatnam, Rajamahendravaram, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Anantapur.

He said that in alignment with the Amaravati Quantum Valley, partnerships with companies like TCS, L&T and IBM had already been formed and the officials should finalise essential infrastructure for the partners. Referring to the proposed ‘Drone City’ project at Orvakal in Kurnool district, spanning 400 acres in the coming year, Mr. Lokesh instructed the officials to create an ecosystem to support it.

He also wanted wide promotion to the ‘Mana Mitra’ WhatsApp governance services launched by the government. He said that out of the total 702 State services, 535 of them were currently being offered through ‘Mana Mitra’ app. He said steps should be taken to ensure internet connectivity in all the 45,000 government schools and uninterrupted phone connectivity at airports in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Rajamahendravaram.