Demonetisation hit Indian economy much before COVID-19, says KTR

Eight consecutive quarters of slowdown landed in the lockdown which resulted in a recession period, says Minister

Hyderabad: Countering the Bharatiya Janata Party’s claims of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown hitting the country’s economy, IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Wednesday said the economy of the country was in doldrums much before the pandemic. The demonetisation had triggered a collapse, with the virus coming in years later, he said.

Interacting with the business community during a ‘Hushaar Hyderabad’ programme here, Rao said the slowdown in the economy had begun before even the lockdown was announced.

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“Eight consecutive quarters of slowdown landed in the lockdown which resulted in a recession period. This is because of the demonetisation which impacted small, micro and medium enterprises and badly hit the growing economy. Today, the results of it are seen and the lockdown has only worsened matters,” Rao said, wondering how many people had benefited from the so-called stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore announced by the NDA government.

Stating that industrialists had to stage protests at Indira Park demanding power supply before the formation of Telangana, Rao said just six months into formation of the new State, the power supply issue was resolved. In the last six years, there were no curfews in Hyderabad and everything has remained peaceful. Unlike earlier, when businesses confined to some areas in the city, he said decentralised economic activity had improved and business today was not confined to one area. The State government, he pointed out, had introduced the Growth In Dispersion (GRID) policy to push IT growth to all corners of Hyderabad.

“For this, we are also giving additional incentives. We have launched five IT parks and Shilparamam in Uppal which also has Metro connectivity. In the next two years, the east part of the city will have an IT Park, and I am inaugurating another IT park in Kompally. A furniture park is being planned in Choutuppal. We are promoting electronics manufacturing clusters in the southern part of Hyderabad,” he said, adding that the government, which had formulated the Integrated Township Policy, was committed to decongesting Hyderabad.

The State government had also come up with idea of special food processing zones in the State where both big and small investors would be given opportunities. On the pharmaceutical front, Hyderabad was the vaccine capital of the world, he said, adding that one-third of vaccines for the world were produced in Hyderabad.

On law and order, Rao said there were about five lakh CCTVs installed in the city so far, with plans afoot to increase this to 10 lakh. All these would be integrated to the upcoming Command & Control Centre while the She Teams were ensuring safety of women.

 

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