Hyderabad: During the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Telangana State Annual Meeting 2022-23 & Conference on Beyond India@75, Telangana’s IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao, stated that India could have achieved a 5 trillion economy if other states had performed as well as Telangana. He urged those with an audience with the Prime Minister to relay this message, and lamented that despite being a high-performing state, Telangana is not receiving enough support from the central government for major projects such as the Hyderabad pharma city and the Kakatiya mega textile park. The minister added that the state would not receive any new manufacturing clusters for electronics.
He mentioned, “The per capita income of the state was Rs 1.24 lakhs in 2014 and has now increased to Rs 3.17 lakhs. Similarly, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 2014 was Rs 5.06 lakh crores, and today it stands at Rs 13.27 lakh crores. We have made progress of 155 percent and 162 percent respectively. Unfortunately, the rest of India did not perform as well as we did.”
The minister pointed out that the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (APRA) 2014 promised the promotion of industrial corridors and special incentives for industrialization, but they have not been fulfilled even after 9 years. “If the promises made in the legislature are not kept, where is the sanctity in calling ourselves the world’s largest democracy?” he added, speaking for both Telangana and Andhra.
Referring to Telangana’s life sciences ecosystem, KTR remarked, “At the 2021 BioAsia conference, the ecosystem was valued at 50 billion dollars, and we aimed to double that value by 2030. However, in 2022, the valuation surged by an additional 30 billion dollars, bringing the current value to 80 billion dollars. As a result, we have revised our target, and now we aim to reach 250 billion dollars by 2030.” KTR highlighted Hyderabad’s status as the vaccine capital of the world, producing 35% or 9 billion doses of vaccines. He expressed optimism that the number of doses produced would increase to 14 billion by next year.
Commenting on ‘Make in India,’ KTR stated, “It is a great slogan, but has it been translated into reality? According to Dr Rajeev Nath, the head of the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), we had 1,200 medical device companies, but now only 600 remain. Why is it easier to manufacture in China and import products from thousands of miles away and still sell them at cheaper prices than locally produced goods?”
KTR further argued that India needs economic engines like Hyderabad to attract talent from around the world. He emphasized the importance of incentivizing better-performing states in India, stating, “India is a union of states, and unless we incentivize the better-performing states, we are doing ourselves a great disservice.”
