HYDERABAD: IT minister KT Rama Rao studied the best practices in supply of drinking water, electricity and sewerage treatment in the US during his second day of his tour on Wednesday.
Rama Rao interacted with Mayors of Carmel and Indianapolis - cities that made their mark with best practices in local governance.
During the interaction with Rama Rao at Carmel City Hall, Mayor James Brainard explained how they carry out the functions of drinking water supply, electricity distribution, public transport and sewage management.
Both of them discussed the public private partnership and other models to raise funds for infrastructure projects.
Mayor James Brainard said citizens extend full cooperation for the development of Carmel city by paying taxes on time. Rama Rao was taken on a tour of City Hall building where he sought to know how the local body meetings are held and how citizens are made part of them.
He enquired about the implementation of smart technologies in the administration of City of Carmel. The minister asked IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan to get full details of City Management Software through which vehicular traffic, water and electricity supply are being tracked live in Carmel. He also examined the mobile app used by Carmel citizens for registering the grievances.
Rama Rao also called on Joe Hogsett, Mayor of Indianapolis and the meeting revolved around city planning and administration. Mayor Joe Hogsett elaborated on the Bus Rapid Transit System built to support the expanding city and growing population.
The city is raising funds for creating basic infrastructure through municipal bonds, Joe explained Rama Rao.
‘’Some of the best practices from the two cities of Carmel and Indianapolis can be replicated in Hyderabad,” Rama Rao said.
MEETINGS ON IT AND HEALTHCARE: On the second day of the USA visit, Rama Rao also met leaders of reputed IT, Healthcare companies in Indianapolis.
He met CEO of Envista Corporation and discussed its expansion plans in Hyderabad. Envista is a supply chain consulting and IT services company, based in Indianapolis.
Rama Rao said that it is the right time to expand Envista Inc operations in India, owing to an explosion in Indian retail market. He assured Envista of all cooperation if it decides to expand operations in Hyderabad.
KTR also met the leadership team of Interactive Intelligence, a global leader of cloud services for customer engagement, communications and collaboration.
The Interactive Intelligence leadership assured Rama Rao that they would soon be expanding their operations in Hyderabad.
Later in the day, Rama Rao called on Steve Akard, Chief of Staff, Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) at its office. The IEDC is State of Indiana’s lead economic development agency.
Rama Rao and Steve Akard agreed to continue and strengthen the sister city relationship that Hyderabad and Indianapolis currently share.