Interactive Voice Response is a form of Computer Telephony (CT) that allows people to interact with a computer through their telephone. For the first time in the country, Computer Telephony Integration technology has been harnessed by NIC in designing and developing an application for the benefit of farmers. The service was formally inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Sh.N Chadrababu Naidu at a function held in Hyderabad. Using this technology, the prices of commodities (minimum, maximum and modal) prevailing in various markets in A.P can be obtained through an ordinary phone by the information seekers, without any manual intervention. No prior training is required to get the prices information, as customer need not touch any key board or mouse. Due to local language interface, the farmers can interact with the system comfortably in local language. This system has been conceptualised, designed and developed by the GISTNIC Division, National Informatics Centre. The cost of establishing such a service was quite affordable for the Market Department of Government of Andhra Pradesh. In default mode, the system announces the maximum, minimum and modal prices of a few prominent commodities. However, the user can obtain maximum, minimum and modal prices of a chosen commodity across the state or can choose a market to obtain the prices prevailing over there. As the system reads the information from a central server, periodically every few hours, more latest prices as per reported information, are announced automatically. ‘Prices over phone’ service is at present available from four locations in Andhra Pradesh, - 1. Marketing Department , State Head quarters, Hyderabad, 2- AMC Vijayawada, 3. AMC Karimnagar, 4- AMC Cuddapah. It is proposed to cover all the important markets in the state by installing more such systems. This IVR software has been standardised and reusable for other markets in the country.
For further information , write to gistnic@ap.nic.in