Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday said IT and ITeS exports from the State increased 12.98% to ₹1,45,522 crore in the fiscal ended March 2021.
Substantial considering it came amid the pandemic and the COVID-19 impact on economy, the rate of growth is estimated to be more than twice as much the national average, he said releasing the annual reports for 2020-21 of the IT and Industries Departments in the presence of senior officials, including the Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
In 2019-20, IT/ITeS exports from the State were over ₹1.28 lakh crore. Mr. Rao said the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at which the exports grew -- from ₹57,258 crore in 2013-14 -- was 14.25%. He said 46,489 new jobs were added last fiscal taking the IT/ ITES employment to 6,28,615 or an increase of 7.99% compared to 2019-20.
Pointing out that the annual reports were being brought out for seven years consecutively, as part of an emphasis on transparency, he said Telangana attracted investments from several marquee firms in 2020-21 too. The list included Amazon Web Services, which is setting up three data centres with an investment of ₹20,761 crore ($2.77 billion), Goldman Sachs and MassMutual.
The State government as part of its plans to taking IT beyond Hyderabad has developed IT towers in Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar. While construction of such facilities in Nizamabad (50,000 sq ft) and Mahabubnagar (60,000 sq ft ) were nearing completion, the foundation for another IT Tower in Siddipet (over 1.21 lakh sq ft) has been laid by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. There are plans to develop IT towers in Nalgonda (1,500 seats), Ramagundam (200 seats) and Wanaparthy (250 seats), he said.
TS-iPASS or the time-bound project approval system for industries, he said, facilitated cumulative investments of over ₹2,14,951 crore and creation of 15.6 lakh jobs. During last fiscal, Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) developed 10 new industrial parks and allotted 810 acres to 453 industrial projects with an estimated investment of ₹6,023 crore and potential employment of 7,623.
Besides consolidating the gains, the State government sought to focus in the current fiscal on growth of the Electric Vehicles (EVs) and food processing sectors. A Special Food Processing Zone, first of its kind in the country, to ensure balanced development is to be set up, he said. The State attracted over ₹4,000 crore investments in last one year in electronics, EVs, energy storage systems and new energy space, which are in various stages of implementation, he added.
Mr.Rao, while listing the initiatives of the State government for the small and medium enterprises, called upon the Centre to work with the States for the growth of SMEs as they have been impacted severely as a result of the pandemic. Stating that the Centre had announced a ₹20 lakh crore stimulus package for the SMEs, he said “don’t know where the money was spent.”
Seeking to highlight the overall growth of Telangana, he said the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) during 2020-21 was ₹9.78 lakh crore or 1.26% lower at constant prices (2011-12).
