Telangana registers stunning 31.44 percent growth in IT sector
IT exports from Telangana shot up from Rs 1,83,569 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2,41,275 crore in 2022-23
Updated On - 5 June 2023, 10:48 PM
Hyderabad: Continuing its surge towards becoming the country’s top information technology destination, Telangana registered a stunning 31.44 per cent growth in IT exports and a jump of 16.29 per cent in job creation in the IT sector in the financial year 2022-2023.
IT exports from the State shot up from Rs 1,83,569 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2,41,275 crore in 2022-23. The State’s growth of 31.44 per cent was against the pan-Indian figure of 9.36 per cent. In terms of job creation, the numbers increased from 7,78,121 in 2021-22 to 9,05,715 in 2022-23. A staggering 1,27,594 new jobs were created in the financial year that concluded this March.
Interestingly, in 2013-14, IT exports from Telangana were worth a mere Rs 57,258 crore. In comparison, the last fiscal’s increase in IT exports from the State from 2021-22 itself was by Rs 57,706 crore, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said after releasing the IT Annual Report 2022-23 here on Monday. All the export statistics were reported by individual companies and provided by the union Government through the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Electronics and IT.
The contribution of Telangana in creating software jobs in the country was 44 per cent last fiscal compared to 33 per cent of jobs created in 2021-22, he said. All these achievements were registered despite the Covid-19 impact, lack of support from the Centre and the scrapping of the ITIR project. Despite these challenges, Telangana attracted new investments due to a stable government and able leadership under Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Rama Rao said.
“This is just the beginning. Hyderabad will continue to be the preferred destination,” he said, adding that the State government with technical assistance from NALSAR was framing legislation for the country’s first Cybercrime Act, which would be tabled in the next Assembly session.
Hyderabad was not just a cosmopolitan city but an international city, with many corporate giants having their largest or second-largest campuses in the city. All these growth and achievements in the IT sector would have a ripple effect on other sectors. The cascading impact would be on the residential construction sector, transportation, entertainment, hospitality and others, the Minister said, adding that all the measures initiated nine years ago were falling in place and more results would come.
ICT policy targets and lack of Central support
As per the ICT policy 2016, Telangana had set a target of 10 lakh jobs in the IT sector by 2026 and to increase the annual IT exports to Rs 3 lakh crore by 2026. Telangana has almost reached these targets with 9,05,715 jobs and IT exports worth Rs 2,41,275 crore by 2022-23. Pointing out that when the Centre introduced the ITIR policy in 2012, it had estimated Hyderabad to reach an IT export potential of Rs 2.5 lakh crore in 2032, the Minister said Telangana had almost reached the targeted estimation nine years in advance.
“Going by the pace, we will have to revise our targets,” he said, however, adding that had the Centre extended required support to Telangana, things would have been different.
The State was appealing for more electronic manufacturing clusters as existing clusters at Maheswaram and E-City were fully occupied. But there was no response. Similarly, Telangana shared its plans to expand IT services to tier II cities and sought assistance, again to no avail. When T-Hub was being constructed, financial assistance was sought, but the Centre remained silent.
NASSCOM vice-president and head (Membership, Outreach & SME) Srikanth Srinivasan said Telangana’s growth rate in the IT sector was triggered by real good physical infrastructure, availability and regular supply of good skilled talent and reception extended by the State government to prospective investors.