Nara Lokesh
In that role, Lokesh meticulously worked to position Andhra Pradesh as a technology hub of the future and created an innovation driven environment. By taking several radical decisions in the Rural Development sector, he accelerated the reach of development benefits including roads, LED lighting, water piping, etc. to the remotest of villages across the state. His timely intervention and concrete measures to alleviate the summer water crisis in rural regions won him praise from all. He is well regarded for his proactive administration, intense knowledge gathering in relevant subjects and active grievance redressal via multiple media.
Lokesh forayed into full time politics in the year 2013 and played an important role in the formation of TDP government in Andhra Pradesh. He helmed the online membership drive adding up 55 lakh members in 55
days, a record for a regional party in the country. For the first time in the country, he helped launch low premium insurance for 55 lakh members, instilling hope in grieving families to overcome financial despair. Cadre training programme is his brainchild where more than 25,000 party workers have been trained to become part of a strong leadership pipeline. Impressed with his services and perseverance, the party leadership elevated him to the position of General Secretary in September 2015, increasing responsibility within the party
He has also served as Vice President at Heritage Foods Limited previously and was instrumental in doubling the revenue and foraying into major Tier I and Tier II cities in South India. He is credited to have laid the foundation for a comprehensive operations framework to deliver best-in-class customer service, drive innovation and ensure the high level of quality that Heritage Foods is today known for. He continues to serve as Non-Executive Director of Heritage Finlease Limited. During his earlier tenure at World Bank from August 2004 to January 2006, Lokesh was involved in several World Bank supported capacity building Projects in e-governance, connectivity solutions etc. across the globe. Activities at the NTR Trust, which has made a significant impact in both the Telugu-speaking states through a myriad of initiatives, remain close to his heart. Lokesh earned an MBA from the prestigious Stanford University Graduate School of Business and holds a BSc. with specialization in Management Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University prior to which he finished his Intermediat education from Little Flower Junior College and schooling from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School – Vidyashram. He is a foodie and loves spending quality time with his young son when free.
Machine Mechanised Cleaning of Rural Overhead Tanks
To ensure that the rural regions had access to clean and safe drinking water, Nara Lokesh used mechanised cleaning using technology brought in from Germany. The technology has been utilized for 723+ tanks scaling across the state.
Chandrakanti LED project
Under the leadership of Nara Lokesh, the East Godavari district was declared the ‘first fully LED street lit district in India’. With the help of Central Government, 25 lakh conventional street lights in 13,000 gram panchayats were replaced with LED lights. A Centralised Control Monitoring System (CCMS) has been specifically created to switch on / off streetlights based on wireless GSM-based panels. Leveraging technology, defective LED streetlights will have to be replaced within 48 hours. A full-fledged central control room was also set up to manage the control
Grievance Redressal
Apart from meeting visitors at his office daily and accepting their grievances, Nara Lokesh also created an efficient grievance redressal mechanism by reaching out to people via social media, primarily through his accounts on Twitter and Facebook. His team has created a software programme that funnels requests based on fields such as category, demographics, geography and department. The programme ran the data and generated SMSs that were sent to HODs of relevant departments during TDP tenure. A follow-up by the team ensues until the grievance / complaint is closed. During his tenure as Minister, Lokesh had accepted 28453 grievances – both physically and through social media, out of which, 19436 have been solved, and the rest were a work in progress
He had accepted 28453 grievances - both physically and through social media, out of which, 19436 had been solved
Jalavani
Nara Lokesh had launched ‘Jalavani’, a call centre that was aimed at solving problems in drinking water supply. As part of the efforts to deliver governance real time, the call centre had successfully completed one year of redressing water grievances. Until mid 2018, 3843 complaints had been received from various districts. Of them, 2896 had been resolved. The process was that people had to register their complaints with the call centre through the toll-free number 18004251899 for getting them resolved. The water tankers had been fitted with GPS to track their movements and make sure they reach their target deliveries – all of which got displayed on a state-of-art dashboard
The Portal ensured ease of doing business along with faster and hassle-free government approvals with limited human interference.
www.dtp.ap.gov.in TO IMPROVE EASE-OF-DOING BUSINESS
As Minister, he had launched the AP Designated Technology Park Portal www.dtp.ap.gov.in to fast track the implementation of DTP Policy. It provided IT companies ready-to-occupy space options. Real-estate developers could also apply for their buildings to be approved as DTP space. The Portal ensured ease of doing business along with faster and hassle-free government approvals with limited human interference. It is the first in a line-up of online portals to realise the vision of making AP the best investment destination.
Fintech Valley Vizag
During the TDP governance, Nara Lokesh developed Visakhapatnam as a hub for Fintech companies. Fintech Valley Vizag aimed to create a global fintech ecosystem in collaboration with multiple stakeholders such as corporates, universities, financial institutions, technology service providers, startups and accelerators. Under the able leadership of Lokesh, Fintech Valley Vizag had become a global brand in a short span of time and had been garnering interest from various countries looking for market access in India, in the domains of fintech cutting across the verticals of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence/ machine learning, analytics, and blockchain. Fintech Valley had also created India’s Largest Fintech Use Case Repository with its 20 leading BFSI corporate partners such as IDFC Bank, Aditya Birla TATA financial services, Kotak bank etc. with 100 use cases identified. This repository aimed to open market access opportunity for startups from across the world to run proof of concepts as well as project implementation with our partners.
Vizag as the Blockchain Capital of India
As Minister during the TDP tenure, Lokesh had also been actively spearheading the adoption of blockchain technology, and his efforts have been recognized globally. In October 2017, Vizag hosted Asia’s Biggest Blockchain Conference, attended by 1000+ delegates from over 20 countries. Recognizing the dearth of R&D centers based on blockchain platform, the Hon’ble Minister has encouraged the creation of Blockchain Centres Of Excellence (CoE) in collaboration with Broadbridge, Thomson Reuters & GITAM University as well as creating forums for Fintech and Blockchain.
e-Governance Initiatives
The former Minister was instrumental in conceptualizing the digitization of governance across departments, leading to a more effective and transparent monitoring and delivery of schemes and activities. He envisioned the need for a one-stop portal for IT & Electronics investors. The portal enabled online application and processing of incentives and approvals.
The former Minister was instrumental in conceptualizing the digitization of governance across departments, leading to a more effective and transparent monitoring and delivery of schemes and activities. He envisioned the need for a one-stop portal for IT & Electronics investors. The portal enabled online application and processing of incentives and approvals.
e-Office
Lokesh also played an active role in conceptualizing
and monitoring the implementation of e-office, aimed
at restricting physical movement of files between
departments, and during the TDP governance it was
implemented in all 13 districts covering up to the gram
panchayat level and has been used to create
22,98,313 files.
Technology for people’s welfare
Being a strong proponent of utilizing technology in governance, GoAP during the TDP governance had implemented several innovative and citizen centric e-governance projects such as MeeSeva, MeeKosam, MeeBhoomi, to ensure improved delivery of services and faster grievance redressal for citizens. The success of these initiatives is gauged from the fact that Andhra Pradesh had consolidated the first position for delivery of e-Services in the country, as per the e-Taal portal of GoI during the TDP governance.
GoAP during the TDP governance had implemented several innovative and citizen centric e-governance projects such as MeeSeva, MeeKosam, MeeBhoomi, to ensure improved delivery of services and faster grievance redressal for citizens.
Technology in Agriculture
Lokesh had also been a strong proponent of utilizing technology in agriculture. The then government had deployed drones to collect and analyze soil samples, and piezometers to continuously monitor ground water levels at mandal level. Sensor based IoT devices were also being assessed for retrofitting old electricity meters with new technology. Huge thrust was being given to drone and agri incubators to nurture start-ups that bring in breakthrough ideas for farmers’ benefit.