AP patted for citizen-first approach through WhatsApp governance
Pensions are delivered to 66 lakh individuals at their doorsteps, mostly within a single day
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh won loud appreciation from officials from the Centre and various States after it gave detailed presentation on recently introduced WhatsApp Governance as part of its citizen-first approach.
On the last day of the 28th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2025 here on Tuesday, a breakout session on e-Governance Initiatives of Government of Andhra Pradesh was conducted. The session was chaired by Bhaskar Katamneni, Principal Secretary, ITE&C Department, Andhra Pradesh. Other panelists included Babu A, Chief Commissioner of State Taxes, Commercial Taxes, Siva Prasadh, Director, GSWS and Prakhar Jain, CEO of Real Time Governance, Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking on the occasion, Katamneni noted that the departments of GSWS and Real Time Governance are unique to Andhra Pradesh. He highlighted that around 66 lakh pensions are delivered to 66 lakh individuals at their doorsteps, mostly within a single day.
He referred to the introduction of WhatsApp governance, which he said was initiated with the idea that accessing government services should be simple and easy.
He explained the State’s Vision aims to build a citizen-first, technology-driven model of governance and stated that more than 40 departments and 710 services are now available on a single digital platform, WhatsApp, enabling citizens to access services anytime, anywhere, and in any language.
Katamneni noted that this rollout was completed across departments in less than nine months. He also pointed out the impact on citizens in terms of convenience, transparency, and faster access, as well as on government through efficiency and reduced costs.
Katamneni added that an AI-powered chatbot with natural language processing, multilingual and voice-enabled services, and integration of over 30 departments ensure performance and reliability.
He informed that over 40 lakh users have engaged with the platform, with more than two crore successful service deliveries recorded, maintaining a 99.98 percent uptime.
In his presentation, Prakhar Jain, CEO of Real-Time Governance, Andhra Pradesh, spoke about the AI-based CCTV surveillance system and said that the Government of Andhra Pradesh had installed a network of 14,770 cameras in 2017 with features such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition and Red-Light Violation Detection.
He noted that challenges such as fragmentation, manual monitoring and lack of coordination remained.
To address these, he explained that AI enablement has been added with 300 advanced cameras and 38 analytics tools for smart policing and governance.
Jain mentioned that the system includes 1,000 face recognition cameras, 2,000 video analytics cameras, 4,500 ANPR cameras, and 13,000 km of fiber optic network. He said the system is integrated with 13 district viewing centres, one State RTG Centre, and one State Viewing Centre, connected through a centralised C4i/ICCC platform.
