SME Times News Bureau | 25 Oct, 2020
Telangana's Industry and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao
on Friday called for empowering the states to boost the country's
growth.
Participating in a
session on 'States-Invested in India' at the Public Affairs Forum of
India's 7th National Forum 2020, he said that the way out of this
pandemic is that the states will have to be empowered and will have to
take the lead.
"Empowerment of states for economic activity and further expansion in industrialisation shall be the key," he said.
KTR,
as the minister is popularly known, also stated that the competition of
attracting investors is not between the states but between India and
the rest of the world.
He also mentioned that the 3-I mantra - innovation, infrastructure, and inclusive growth is the key to success.
The
minister told the delegates that Telangana is the first state in India
to introduce a self-certification policy (TS-iPASS) for investors, and
stressed that it is important to have existing investors happy as they
can be the biggest ambassadors of the state across the world.
"Six
years after this policy was launched, we successfully attracted $28
billion of investments, and 23 per cent of this has come from our
existing investors," said KTR.
"In Telangana, we don't just help
companies invest in the state, but also hand-hold the industries coming
here as they set up their operations. We act as advocates for our
investors and take their policy inputs. We also parley with key
Government of India leaders, for it is in the interest of the nation,"
the minister added.
He mentioned that the top five valued
technology companies in the world -- Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft,
and Amazon -- have their second-largest base outside their headquarters
in Hyderabad.
"Telangana contributes to 35 per cwent of the
country's bulk drugs and pharmaceutical manufacturing. We are the
vaccine capital of the world," he said.
With 13 sessions and over
60 speakers, the session focused on strategies the industry needs to
adopt for an effective public affairs practice.
The other
delegates who participated in the session include Union Minister for
MSME, Investment & Export Sidharth Nath Singh and FICCI Secretary
General Dilip Chenoy.