To the uninitiated it may appear nothing more than the plain old television. But the system in question is nothing short of being the granddad of the TV as it combines video-conferencing, data-transfer technology and Internet browsing, all thrown into one.

While the chief minister's office has already started using it in a limited way, come June the hi-tech Babu will be keeping tabs on his minions through the system when the AP State Wide Area Network (APSWAN), goes on-stream.

"The whole technology will have a salutary effect on the functioning of the government and we expect other states to follow suit", said TN Sundar country manager and director on the board of the$500-million multinational company. And not surprisingly other states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra too want to emulate the cyber-savvy CEO of AP, he informed The Financial Express.

The products of the company are marketed in India by Siemens and set up by the Private Communications Systems Division of the company which will link up 26 locations in AP on a turn-key basis piggybacking on the proposed APSWAN backbone which is being implemented by the UTL. It is the first time in the country that any company has bagged such a big order, put at Rs 54 million, for video-conferencing equipment. Infact so upbeat are the Siemens officials that they hope the order would usher in a new phase for the group in the company.

"The Andhra Pradesh Technology Services (APTS), order will go a long way in establishing our presence in the total solutions enterprise market", S B Banerjee executive vice president Private communications systems division Siemens said this evening talking to press persons. Considering theimportance of the event Siemens also took the opportunity to announce the launch of its new multimedia communications system, Hicom OfficePro in the city today. "It is a complete guaranteed future-proof voice, data and multimedia communication system", said a Siemens official talking of the new launch.