The Telangana state government has filed a cyber complaint against Andhra Pradesh state government. Alleging AP of cyber plagiarism, Telangana state government approached Ministry of Commerce to look into the issue. Industry Minister KT Rama Rao has written letter to Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman asking her to take note of the issue and take necessary action. Telangana government has filed a cyber theft case against the Andhra Pradesh government alleging that AP had copied a couple of ‘interfaces’ Telangana had developed for its Commercial Courts application. This is first-of-its kind cyber complaint made by a state government against another state government.
It all started when Telangana reportedly identified that AP has copied its interfaces in its application as part of the ‘World Bank’s much touted Ease of Doing Business index’ and both the neighbouring states vying up for good rank in the index. Hosted on a website run by the DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), the dynamically changing list assesses various States based on their performance on a host of parameters. Although the ranking index doesn’t necessitate any additional financial benefits, the states have been using these ranks for marketing and attracting investors.
Andhra Pradesh stood second only next to Gujarat in the first-ever rankings in September 2015, leaving Telangana at the 13th rank. This said to have invited flak from Telangana. “This has surprised us because we have announced a business friendly Industrial Policy. We then decided to take it seriously. We have submitted all the 340 queries as required and submitted before the deadline of June 30,” Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary (Industries and Commerce), said.
But the deadline was extended by a week and allowed States to upload data about the programmes implemented before June 30. “To our shock, we see two templates in our Commercial Courts modules were copied and used by the Andhra Pradesh government. This is nothing but plagiarism,” the Principal Secretary said.
Meanwhile, the government of Andhra Pradesh has termed Telangana’s allegations as baseless. “AP has second rank after Gujarat in ease of doing business. Why should we copy matter from Telangana which is in the 13th position?,” Parakala Prabhakar, Advisor (Communications), Government of Andhra Pradesh, told media persons on Wednesday. Referring to similarities of a spelling mistake and a specific nomenclature in references, he said it could be possible as both states could be quoting from a common High Court order.
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