KTR flags injustice to Telangana in sanctioning new STPIs

Hyderabad: Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao expressed anguish over the union Government not sanctioning any new Software Technology Parks (STPIs) to Telangana. In a letter to union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, he requested to sanction new Software Technology Parks to Tier 2 and 3 towns of Nizamabad, Karimngar, Nalgonda, Khammam and […]

Hyderabad: Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao expressed anguish over the union Government not sanctioning any new Software Technology Parks (STPIs) to Telangana. In a letter to union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, he requested to sanction new Software Technology Parks to Tier 2 and 3 towns of Nizamabad, Karimngar, Nalgonda, Khammam and Mahabubnagar in Telangana.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on April 6, in a reply to a question from Lok Sabha member Chandan Singh, had informed that the union Government had sanctioned 22 new STPIs for Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns in the country. States like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh have figured in the list of upcoming STPIs. However, Telangana did not find a place in that list, Rama Rao pointed out.

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“The union Government has already done a great disservice to the youngsters of Telangana by withdrawing the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) that was sanctioned to Hyderabad by the erstwhile UPA Government,” he said adding that several reminders from the State Chief Minister and himself for reinstating the ITIR project fell on deaf ears.

“I have personally met the then union IT and Electronics Minister Ravishankar Prasad with this request. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi also about this issue. Yet, nothing has happened till date. In the current instance too, the union Government seems to have ignored a performing State like Telangana in sanctioning new Software Technology Parks of India,” he pointed out.

“I am sure you will agree with the fact that development of the States amounts to the development of the country. I urge you to use your good offices to sanction new Software Technology Parks to Tier 2 and 3 locations like Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Khammam and Mahabubnagar,” Rama Rao said in the letter. He asserted that these measures provide a fillip to the IT sector in the State and lead to generation of employment opportunities to youngsters of Telangana.

Placing on record the tremendous growth of the IT Sector after the formation of Telangana State, Rama Rao said the IT Exports from Telangana were pegged at Rs 57,258 crore in the year 2014-15. They grew to Rs 1.45 lakh crore in the year 2021-22. The number of IT employees grew from 3.23 lakh then to 6.28 lakh to now. Hyderabad has been clocking a healthy growth rate in commercial office space absorption too. It is consistently overtaking Bengaluru in this metric, he explained.

Progressive investment policies of Telangana have attracted several marquee companies to the State in the past eight years. Telangana is the only State in the country to have sectoral IT policies such as Electronics Policy, Rural Tech Centers Policy, IMAGE Policy, Data Centers Policy and others. The State also has a comprehensive innovation ecosystem with institutions like T-Hub, We-Hub, Telangana State Innovation Cell, Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad and Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge, he said.

The majority of the State’s IT/ITES exports come from Hyderabad, a major IT-Hub not only in India but also in the whole world. The State government is taking several measures to develop Tier-2 and Tier- 3 locations as IT powerhouses and facilitate growth of a complete ecosystem like Hyderabad in these locations. Khammam, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal and others have already been established as IT-hubs. Telangana Government has built plug-and-play infrastructure in these towns. It started construction of similar hubs in Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and Siddipet in the State, Rama Rao said.

“We are seeing huge interest from both major multinational IT Companies and also SMEs to set up their operations in these Tier 2 and 3 towns,” he said.

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