Vizag’s “Connectivity Matters”

This is the motto of a high level team from the United States who are offering a lot of help to develop Visakhapatnam as a smart city and improve broadband connectivity. This is in order to ensure a bundle of value added services with distinctive delivery mechanism. The team had interacted with Government officials and faculty members of Andhra University.

The team consisted of Mr. Manu Bhardwaj, Senior Advisor on Technology and Internet Policy to the Under Secretary of State, US Department of State, Ms. Nese Guendelsberger, Deputy Chief, International Bureau, Federation Communications Commission, Mr. Steve Traylor, Executive Director and General Counsel, National Association of Telecommunications’ Officers and Advisors (NATOA) and Ms. Aimee Meacham, Director, Broadband Service, National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Ms. Guendelsberger informed that they were looking at strengthening their ties with India and facilitate business-2-business and people-2-people exchange programmes for digital transformation. She also added that in the United States, 99 per cent of people use the internet and they were trying to make it 100 per cent shortly. She said that India is  valued as an important ally and the team wants to help cities including Visakhapatnam to adopt smart ways.

Mr. Bhardwaj said they were excited to be associated with India to facilitate digital transformation. Calling for more technology-driven apps and services, he said this would make quality of life better. Ms. Meacham also added to this that they were keen on popularising best practices in digital technology, job skills and job development using Internet

Mr. G. Nageswara Rao, Vice Chancellor – Andhra University, updated everybody present they had converted the university into a smart campus by providing Wi-Fi to all and digitalising all records and services.

The Indian team also consisted of  Mr. V. Muralikrishna, CII Vizag Zone Chairman, Mr. M.P. Dubey, Joint Director – Software Technology Parks of India, Mr. P.S. Avadhani, Principal, AU College of Engineering and Mr. P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy, Head of Department of Computer Science.  

The best part of this joint meeting was everyone had discussed the operational requirements to ensure that the mentioned initiatives were put into place. Here’s looking at the city of Vizag soon turning into the “Smart” hotspot of the world.