ET Awards 2018 for Business Reformer of the Year: K Chandrashekar Rao, Chief Minister, Telangana

Using Innovation and Tech as Multipliers to Bridge the Gap

As the first chief minister of India’s youngest state, the immediate concern for Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, who spearheaded a prolonged agitation for a separate state, Telangana, was to restrain flight of capital and instil confidence among businesses. Another was to address the acute power shortage in the state. After initiating steps to tackle these issues, KCR attracted global attention by announcing the world’s first automatic industrial approvals policy TS-iPASS. Under this, approvals are granted within 15 days of application for setting up industries, failing which clearance will be deemed conferred with self-certification from the enterprises.

The jury recognised Chandrashekar Rao for leading Telangana to a double-digit economic growth, facilitating ease of doing business, and for executing a powerful and innovative solution to directly transfer cash support to farmers.

“The ET award is a recognition to the innovative initiatives that Telangana, as India’s youngest state, had taken up on various fronts like development and welfare to address the challenges immediately after the state’s formation,” said Rao, adding that the initiatives helped Telangana achieve a record annual revenue growth rate of 17.17% during the past four years.

After succeeding in retaining existing investors, KCR shifted focus to attracting large global investors and pushed the administration to step up reforms aimed at improving Telangana’s ranking in ease of doing business. Rigorous efforts, periodic review meetings and follow-ups have resulted in Telangana beating PM Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat to take the top spot in the World Bank’s rankings in 2016, sharing it with Andhra Pradesh.

It is now focussing on improving rankings in the cost of doing business and taking industrial development beyond Hyderabad.

Over the past four years, Telangana claims to have granted approvals to over 6,800 industries, which promise to bring around `1.27 lakh crore of investment and jobs for nearly 5.3 lakh people.