KTR addresses industrialists at CII Southern Region Council Meeting

An interactive session with Minister K T Rama Rao and Dr S K Joshi, Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana was organized as part of the CII Southern Region Council Meeting in Hyderabad on July 28, 2018. 

Addressing the industrialists from across Southern Region, Minister K T Rama Rao, said that the Hon’ble Chief Minister had ambitious ideas and a vision that would be inclusive for the development of the State. The State Government since coming to power focused its strengths on developing three areas : Agriculture, Infrastructure and Industry & Commerce.

In the meeting, Minister Rama Rao said, "The Farmers Investment Support Scheme, Rythu Bandhu, has been able to provide support to over 58 Lakh land owners who are engaged in farming in the State. This was achieved because of the massive effort taken by the Government to update the land records in the State. In just 100 days, over 95% of the rural lands were cleared. This scheme has been appreciated by many economists and the Central Government is considering replicating this scheme. Over Rs 12,000 Crores was allocated in the budget for this scheme".

Adding on, he said "Complimenting this initiative, the Government is about to launch the Rythu Beema scheme on Aug 15, where the farmers between the age of 18 and 60 will get life insurance cover. The premium will be paid by the Government and the family will be paid an amount of Rs 5 Lakhs within 10 days, in case of the farmer’s accidental and natural death'.

Under Mission Kakatiya, over 30,000 lakes of the 46,000 lakes in the state have been rejuvenated and the work on the others is being carried out. He invited the participation of the Private sector in this initiative to rejuvenate the water bodies in the urban areas. He also mentioned that Mission Bhagiratha which was aimed at providing potable  water to every household in the state and will be completed in the next 2-3 months. He said that this was one of the most ambitious projects with a cost of Rs 50,000 crores, where over 140,000 kilometers of pipeline is being laid across the state, to ensure that the water is supplied to over 1 crore households. The T-Fibre project, which is aimed at making the state Digital by providing Internet for all is part of on Mission Bhagiratha. The Fiber optic Cable is being laid along with the water pipeline to ensure that digital services could be provided to every household.

The Haritha Haram project was conceived with the objective of increasing the green cover in the State, which is currently at 22%, to 33% by planting over 230 crore saplings in 5 years. Over 80 Crore saplings have been planted in the last 3 years and efforts are being ramped up for the next 2 years to achieve the target.

He also highlighted that the State is now power surplus and that the Government is able to provide 24 hrs uninterrupted power supply not just to industries but to the households and for agriculture. He highlighted that the electricity provided for agriculture purposes was free of cost. The State is ranked number 2 in terms of generating Solar Power. He also said that the Government has been proactively studying various welfare schemes implemented by other states across the country, and developing on them to be implemented in the State.

While speaking about the level of industrial activity in the state, he said that the government’s New industrial Policy coupled with TS-iPass has been able to attract major investments into the State over the last 3 years which has been able to generate direct and indirect employment. He also highlighted the government’s efforts in boosting the investment by developing Sector specific Industrial parks focusing on Pharma, Medical Devices, Aerospace & Defence, MSME, Textiles, Food Processing among others. Stressing on Hyderabad being the second largest IT Hub in the country, he said that IT industry grew by 13% in the last year in the state as against 9% nationally. He also said that Top Tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, has their second largest facilities in Hyderabad, next to their main facility.

Welcoming the idea of setting-up of the Government-CII Consultative Forum, the Minister said that it would definitely help with increasing the industrial activity and investments into the States. He urged that this Forum should be institutionalized at the earliest to work on specific issues.

Dr S K Joshi, Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana said that the state government was focused on holistic sustainable development. He said that the Government with the objective of making water accessible throughout the state had initiated the Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha were initiated and remarkable progress is made so far in these initiatives. State Government is also focusing on improving the quality in school education system, access to better health care facilities, and highlighted the various welfare schemes initiated by the Government, such as the KCR Kits where basic necessities for raising a newborn child were provided at a Government hospital. He also emphasized that  State Government has been working closely with the Police department to improve the safety of all the citizens especially she teams initiative has proved to be very successful for women’s safety.

While addressing the session, Mr. R Dinesh, Chairman, CII Southern Region & Jt Managing Director, TVS Sundaram Iyengar & Sons Pvt. Ltd. complimented the efforts of the State Government for not only providing best services to the industry and focusing on infrastructure development and social development. He also suggested that CII looks forward to strengthening its working relationship with State Government by exploring the opportunities to work in backward districts development and strengthening industrial corridors.

 -Press note