The Telangana government, as part of the Digital Week programme line up, will launch a phablet for farmers to help them stay updated on information that they can use. Involving premier agricultural research institute, ICRISAT, and the Departments of IT and Agriculture, the initiative is to provide easy, timely access to farmers on issues pertaining to their area.
Announcing this here on Thursday, at a curtain-raiser event on India Gadget Expo 2015, IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao said, “Technology can be a great leveller… opportunities that modern technology provides should also be accessible to the farming community.”
Mr. Rao, who is also Panchayati Raj Minister, said the device is robust and water-proof. The idea is to popularise it initially through Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies. Noting that the cost of the device may be a constraint, he said efforts were under way to make it affordable and in future, the State government may think of supplying it to farmers directly.
The Digital Telangana campaign from Friday will showcase various initiatives stemming from efforts to “bring about convergence of various line departments”.
“We are working with the Endowments Department to start online services, reservations and bookings, for a couple of famous temples [Bhadrachalam and Yadadri],” the Minister said. Other launches planned during the week include biometric attendance in Warangal and wi-fi at the State universities.
“Starting tomorrow, in fact, we are launching our own Digital Telangana campaign,” Mr. Rao added.
The priorities of the Centre and the State government, as far as IT and the Digital India campaign are concerned, are in perfect alignment, Mr. Rao said, adding that there were plans to launch a few more Mee-Seeva services on mobile phones. Cyber security is another focus area and an MoU with a prestigious institute in Hyderabad will be signed soon for more cyber warriors. The State government, he said, proposed to lay optic fibre cable network along its water grid project.
