Chandrababu Naidu chants VIADUCT mantra to make AP knowledge hub

Ongole: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that the government was following the mantra of VIADUCT (Vision, Innovation, Accountability, Digitalization, Uberization, Convergence and Transformation) to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub with innovation and technology. He participated in the Jnanabheri, the knowledge summit with the students and youth here on Wednesday.

The Chief Minister announced that the Jnanabheri programme was aimed to build vision, rational thinking and to motivate the youth and students to achieve entrepreneurial skills. Sharing his vision to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub with innovation and technology at the forefront of the growth strategy, he announced that the government chose the VIADUCT as a link between theory and practicability, perception and performance.

He announced that the future belongs to youth from Andhra Pradesh and Telugus in the country and to Indians in the world. He said that youth as demographic dividend, their English speaking skills, tech-friendly nation are the advantages of India over the other top countries, the US and China in near future.

Quoting John Sculley, the former CEO of PepsiCo and Apple, Naidu said that the future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious and in that spirit, , he planned to develop the state as a knowledge economy. He claimed that the state had registered double digit growth since 2015-16 and aimed to achieve 14.59 per cent in the 2018-19. 

He asked the students to understand that politics and development are intertwined. He said that the people in the state believed in him for the development of the bifurcated and deficit-budget state. Recalling that BJP promised to give Special Category Status (SCS) to AP and Narendra Modi too reiterated it at Tirupati, Guntur, Nellore and at the foundation ceremony for Amaravati, he said TDP left the alliance and started to fight against the Union government led by the BJP as it did injustice to the state. Since then, he alleged that the Central government targeted the state and caused raids by the income tax, Enforcement Directorate and the CBI. 

The Chief Minister alleged that the Central government was yet to release Rs 3,500 crore spent for the Polavaram project and was not cooperating with the state. He said that the state government is looking for ways to complete the Polavaram and Veligonda projects by next year and supply water to people. He also announced that he would lay foundation stones to the steel plant at Kadapa and port at Ramayapatnam. 

Chandrababu Naidu said that with 81 lakh students and youth in the state, prestigious national institutions like IIT, NIT, IIM, IISER, IIITDM and Central University and private universities like VIT, SRM, KREA along with the 18 state universities and 360 plus engineering colleges, 930 plus MCA, MBA and B Ed colleges, the state would become a knowledge economy. 

He said that the digital and virtual classrooms in schools and colleges, international collaborations and MoUs helped the institutions in the state to achieve top ranks in NAS, NACC and NIRF rankings. He said that the government was ready to offer any help for the students with innovative ideas and skills and advised them to utilise the services of the government to make the state an innovation valley.