Telangana Govt Focusing on High Employment Generating Sectors – K T Rama Rao

Mr K T Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries, IT, E&C, Govt of Telangana today said, “In order to attract investments, create employment, and to make it conducive for businesses to thrive in our state, we are not only focusing on ease of doing business but also on reducing the cost of doing business and also improving the quality of doing business.”

Addressing a special session on ‘Rebuilding and Rebooting Telangana’s Economy Post COVID-19’ organized by FICCI, Mr Rao also urged the Indian industry to come forward and invest in the state.

Using this crisis as an opportunity, Mr Rao said that the state government will start focusing on the investments which are looking to move away from China and other large manufacturing countries. “Telangana is open for business and we are looking for investments in high employment generating sectors like textiles, electronics, life sciences, IT, and we will continue our endeavour to bring more investments,” he added.

Mr Rao said that the state government has been focusing on these steps and engaging with industry and all stakeholders at multiple levels.

He added that India needs to think on scale so that our healthcare and life sciences industry becomes competitive and is not import-dependent. “We need to think of scale, we need to think about mega industrial parks. The world’s largest pharma cluster in the form of Hyderabad Pharma City will be coming up in Telangana in the next few months. This will reduce dependence on any other market across the world,” said Mr Rao.

Highlighting the steps taken by the state government to reduce the impact of COVID-19, Mr Rao said that we have been following the WHO and ICMR guidelines diligently. “COVID-19 has been a challenge for governments across the world. In a developing nation like India, we will have to ensure that lives and livelihoods are balanced. At the same time, the country by and large cannot afford to shut out economic activities completely,” he said.

Enumerating the steps taken in the short term to support the MSMEs, Mr Rao said that a lot needs to be done in the medium and long term. “We need to also ensure that our MSME industry receives much-needed support. We have to make efforts to increase consumption, increase demand, invest more in infrastructure projects, attract more investments and create employment.”

Dr Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI said, “Telangana is among the few states which opened agriculture and industrial activity with requisite standard procedures. It also has a strong industrial base with many inbuilt drivers for fast and sustainable growth.”

She further added that while COVID-19 has significantly impacted the world, it does also offer us many opportunities. “India is a stable and large market with liberalized economy. It has an attractive policy regime and implementation of these have been very proactive,” added Dr Reddy.

The interactive session saw participation of Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary to Government of Telangana, Industries & Commerce (I&C) Department, & Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (IT, E&C) Department along with FICCI Past Presidents Mr Sandip Somany, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, HSIL Limited; Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman, Advent Private Equity and Mr Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice Chairman & MD, J K Paper Ltd.