Telangana's Minister for Industries and Information Technology K.T. Rama Rao has said that India needs the Telangana model.
He claimed that India's successful startup state Telangana has undergone a revolutionary transformation in just nine years to become a pioneer state.
KTR, as the minister is popularly known, recounted Telangana's transformation 'Ideas for India' conference in London on Saturday. The event was organised by the global advisory firm EPG in conjunction with Bridge India.
Quoting Victor Hugo, the minister said that 'Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come' and the Telangana model is an idea whose time has come.
"As India, we have to focus on the fundamentals and basics the way Telangana did. We need to focus on the farmer, the youth, while creating a future that is based in innovation and making India a leader in the fourth Industrial Revolution," he remarked.
He highlighted the remarkable progress made by Telangana in the last nine years, emphasising its success in achieving five revolutions in the agriculture and allied sectors.
"Telangana was considered an arid region, where the lakes and tanks in villages were running dry, where people dug multiple bore wells, sometimes resulting in farmer suicides because of the financial burdens, where people suffered from fluorosis, is now a lush green state, where a farmer can grow two crops a year. Because of what we did in irrigation, farmer welfare, and other reforms, Telangana has ushered in five revolutions," KTR said.
In addition, the minister made a mention about the novel policy interventions and unique schemes introduced by the Telangana government and highlighted the achievements of Telangana in sectors such as power, health, rural development, economy and others.
"Telangana's per capita income grew more than 2.5 times, and we now stand to be the number one in the country. A state with 2.5 per cent population contributes to 5 per cent of India's GDP," he added.
The IT and Industries Minister brought to the notice of the audience that Hyderabad is home to marquee tech companies and the city is an emerging hub for innovation.
"We built T-Hub, the world's largest startup incubator. T-Works, India's largest prototyping center. We-Hub, India's first women entrepreneur incubator. TSIC, to help rural innovators. TASK, largest finishing school to orient the graduating youth. While we continue to focus on improving our infrastructure and industry, we have not lost sight of the commitment to our environment," said Minister KTR.
"Under the flagship Haritha Haaram program, we have undertaken one of the largest green initiatives in human history. We planted 24 billion saplings. As a state, we achieved the highest green cover growth in India, of 7 per cent," the Minister added.
The Minister's speech also focused on India's potential for development, particularly on the importance of investing in human resources to create opportunities in employment and entrepreneurship.
KTR was optimistic that by doing things right, what China could achieve in 30 years, India could do in less than 20 years.
He stressed that India should capitalise on the demographic dividend as 67 per cent of the population are in the age group of 15 to 64, which is the highest number of working population any country had in the entire history of mankind.
The minister was hopeful that by doing things right India can increase the per capita by 6 to 8 times in the next 20 years.
