Telangana key to $5 trillion economy, Centre holding back: KT Rama Rao

HYDERABAD: Had the Centre incentivised high performing states like Telangana instead of penalising them, India would have already achieved its ambition of emerging as a $5 trillion economy in 2022 itself, Telangana industries & IT minister KT Rama Rao told a gathering of industry captains here on Tuesday.
Addressing CII Telangana's annual session, KTR said: "When we started our journey in 2014, our per capital income (PCI) was 1.24 lakh. Today it is 3.17 lakh. Our GSDP back in 2014 was 5.06 lakh crore. Today it is 13.27 lakh crore. The rest of India, unfortunately, did not do as well. Had it done as well, we certainly would have reached the $5 trillion target in 2022 itself."

Pointing out that India needs economic engines like Hyderabad to attract global talent, he said that India is a union of states and only if performing states are incentivised will India emerge as a first world country.
He pointed out despite being a performer Telangana was being penalised. "Hyderabad Pharma City, the world's largest pharma cluster, will not receive support from GoI. Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, the largest textiles park in India has zero support from GoI. We will not receive new manufacturing clusters for electronics."
The minister also lamented that promises made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act had not been kept. "What was promised is part of the legislature, an enactment, a statute. If that is not honoured where is the sanctity of calling ourselves the world's largest democracy?" he asked.