Telangana's Information Technology (IT) Minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday urged the Union government to announce an alternative scheme or initiative for Hyderabad in lieu of the long pending Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) which it has scrapped. The ITIR project which was proposed by the then Congress government for the Telangana region has become a point of contention between TRS and BJP in the state.
In a letter to Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, KTR said, “It is clear that the Union government is not inclined to continue the ITIR scheme and may consider providing a scheme/initiative in its place to ensure that cities like Hyderabad continue to flourish and provide employment to youngsters.
Cities like Hyderabad are the economic engines that contribute immensely to our country's economy. It is therefore important that such cities should be rewarded by way of new policy initiatives and incentives.”
KTR, as Rao is popularly known, wrote that the youth of Telangana are eagerly waiting for new employment opportunities that could be created with the support of the Union government in the IT sector. KTR recalled that the state government made numerous appeals during the past six years to sanction funds for ITIR but unfortunately there was no response whatsoever from the Union government.
"Valuable time was lost as the Telangana government kept on pursuing the ITIR Project without any response from the Union government. Considering the importance of the IT sector and its contribution to the overall economy, a prompt response on such an important matter would have been appropriate. Several lakh local youth have been deprived of employment due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Union government," he wrote
The state minister wrote that he was sharing some very promising news from Telangana amidst all the gloomy news coming in from across the globe owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest estimates indicate that the IT exports from Telangana are expected to grow over 7% to touch Rs 1.4 lakh crore (about $19.1 billion) for the financial year 2020-21. The national growth rate in the said period, according to NASSCOM, is estimated to be at about 1.9% at $150 billion.
"Hyderabad saw a healthy 8.7 million square feet of new office space creation during the year, despite the severe impact of Covid-19 on the economy. In terms of the share of sectoral occupiers, the information technology (IT/ITeS) sector including data centres dominated with a major share, followed by Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing sectors, while other services and co-working sectors also contributed. We could attract several marquee Companies such as Amazon Web Services, Goldman Sachs, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to Telangana during the past one year," KTR said.
He pointed out that the state government has been aggressively promoting emerging technologies like AI, Data Analytics, IOT, cyber security, Digital entertainment technologies (Animation, Gaming, VFX), Blockchain, Drones, etc. Added to this, the proactive role of the state government in encouraging product development, R&D, and skill development in these areas of emerging technologies has also encouraged many global and domestic IT companies to bring their technology development centres to Hyderabad.
The Minister has also stated that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the same issue multiple times. He stated that cities like Hyderabad are economic engines which contribute to the country's economy and they should be given rewards with new policy initiatives and economic incentives.