COVID-19 notwithstanding Telangana IT exports double national average

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, May 21

Telangana’s Information Technology (IT) exports have grown by 17.93 per cent compared to the national average of 8.09 per cent, according to a report presented to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), on Thursday.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said the results had shown that the state was obviously the most preferred IT investment destination of the future.

India is keenly eying investment by companies that move out of China following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao instructed his son, KT Rama Rao (KTR), who is also the IT and Industries Minister, to ensure all measures and precautions were taken to ensure that the IT Industry functioned smoothly, keeping in view the threat from COVID-19.

KTR and Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan met Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan (CMs camp office) and presented to him the details of IT exports and the employment data for the financial year 2019-20.

On the employment front, Telangana grew at a rate of 7.2 per cent compared to the national average of 4.93 per cent, while the rest of the nation grew at average of 4.59 per cent.

The state achieved 50 per cent more than that of the country. 

Telangana’s share of employment in the country grew from 13.06 per cent in 2018-19 to 13.34 per cent in 2019-20.

The overall share of Telangana in the Indian export growth for 2019-20 was 23.53 per cent, while the overall share of Telangana in the Indian employment growth for 2019-20 was 19.07 per cent.

The IT Minister explained that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, during the last quarter of the financial year 2019-2020 (Jan 2019 to March 2020), Telangana achieved a phenomenal export growth 17.93 per cent which was more than double that of the country’s growth.

The Principal Secretary mentioned the efforts undertaken by the IT department under the IT4TS (IT for Telangana State) campaign during the lockdown.

 “Several IT companies have contributed towards PPEs, ventilators, and other relief efforts among other things,” Jayesh Ranjan told Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

The IT fraternity in Hyderabad was able to raise over Rs 70 crore collectively towards the fight against COVID-19.

During the 2019-20 financial year, several marquee investments took place in Hyderabad, including the inauguration of Amazon’s world’s largest facility at 3 million SFT and Micron’s largest R&D centre globally. TechMahindra and Cyient also chose to open their centres in the tier-2 location of Warangal.

The government is also promoting dispersion of IT around the city with several MNCs showing interest in the eastern parts of the city. The commercial space absorption in the city during the first quarter for year 2019-20 also topped all Metros in India in absolute terms.

KTR said Hyderabad’s IT eco-system had the agility and resilience to overcome the effects of Covid-19. He pointed out that several investors were actively engaged in discussions with the department and very soon, there will be some announcement in this regard.