Visakhapatnam: State I.T. and Panchayat Raj minister N. Lokesh on Wednesday said the state government has been promoting digital transactions on a large-scale. Mr Lokesh was in Vizag city to participate in a workshop alongside the representatives of Visa Inc. and Fintech Valley Vizag on making Vizag a cashless city. Mr Lokesh said Vizag was taken as a pilot city to be made the first cashless city in the country.
“Awareness should be created among people of the city about cashless transactions. But it should not be in a coercing way. And digital transactions should not impose any additional financial burden on the common people. Vizag should be made a cashless city in the next 10 months,” he said. He explained how they were trying to attract all premier global I.T. companies to Andhra Pradesh, in particular Visakhapatnam. “Vizag will be developed into an I.T. hub in the next two years. Cashless services through smart cards will be promoted and encouraged at all private and public organisations, including government offices, retail stores, etc. The TD government is against higher currency notes.
“Demonetisation of these notes will bring economic equality in the country. In technology adoption, Andhra Pradesh is the number one state in the country and ePoS was successfully implemented in the public distribution system,” he said. District collector Pr-avin Kumar explai-ned the measures taken up during the demonetisation of higher currency notes. Andhra University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Nageswara Rao said AU was a pioneer in adopting digital transactions.
“We have implemented electronic transactions in fee payments, hostel fee payments and canteens,” said Prof. Nageswara Rao. On this occasion, Mr Lokesh suggested of training AU students on digital transactions and subsequently utilising them to create awareness among the public on the same.Principal secretary (ITE&C) K. Vijayanand, Special Chief Secretary, and J.A. Chowdary, the I.T. Adviser to Andhra Pradesh Chief Mini-ster N. Chandrababu Naidu, and others were present.
