KTR urges Centre to urgently rescue MSMEs through Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus

HYDERABAD: Telangana Minister for MA & UD, IT and Industries, Handlooms and Textiles KT Rama Rao has urged the Centre to live up to its commitment of ‘Make-in-India’ and work with state governments to support MSMEs, which have been suffering due to the pandemic, by immediately releasing the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package announced by it last year to help the ailing sector.

On Thursday, Rama Rao released the annual report of the IT and Industries Department for 2020-21 in Hyderabad, where he gave a detailed account of how Telangana has been able to attract global investment from Fortune 500 and other companies and create thousands of jobs in the process during the last few years.

Taking parameters like GDP, growth rate, employment rate, per capita income and growth of agriculture and allied sectors, he said that Telangana had fared way better than the national average.

Elaborating on the progress in Telangana with regard to investment in establishing industries, technology and innovational advances made during the past 7 years, he said plans have been laid out for the next couple of years, which include launching IT towers in Nalgonda, Ramagundam, Siddipet, Mahabubnagar and Nizamabad, in addition to launching T Hub Phase-II.

He has also assured that in the next year, special food processing parks would be set up in 10 erstwhile districts of Telangana, for which 250 acres have been acquired.

IT jobs doubled in seven years: KTR

Rama Rao also said that despite several challenges faced by the state including the present pandemic, the number of jobs in the IT sector has doubled in Telangana.

Addressing mediapersons during the release of the annual report of the IT and Industries Department in Hyderabad on Thursday, he pointed out that while there were 3,23,000 jobs in the IT sector in 2014,  the number of employees in the sector stands at 6,28,615 after seven years.

"Each direct job in the IT sector leads to 2.5 indirect jobs in sectors dependent on IT. There are 20 lakh indirect jobs in the state which are dependent on the IT sector," he observed.