Former Minister and senior Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah said the government has failed to increase the IT exports exploiting the advantage of Hyderabad despite the earlier governments creating the necessary infrastructure.
Mr. Ponnala said IT exports increased from ₹ 4 crore to ₹ 5,000 crore from 1992 to 2002. When he was the IT Minister, he ensured the exports went up to ₹ 58,000 crore taking the increase by 12 times. However, the TRS government could only increase it to ₹1.20 lakh crore. Though it is appreciable the growth could have been much higher as this government failed to bring in any major companies, he said.
He said it was the Congress government that signed an agreement with Apple to set up its operations in Hyderabad while all the IT giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Wipro, Infosys were brought during the previous governments. “Can this government claim of any major IT company coming to the city in its term?” he asked.
Mr. Ponnala also said the previous Congress governments created the necessary infrastructure for scaling up the IT exports starting projects like the International Airport, Metro Rail and the Outer Ring Road. Impetus was given to Animation and Gaming industry as well, but this government totally ignored the sector or else the IT exports would have been much higher.