Telangana pitches for IT in tier-2 cities
Assures special incentives in small cities; KTR wishes Telangana, AP lead in IT
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-26 03:13 GMT
Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Thursday promised special incentives to attract IT companies to second rung cities such as Warangal and Karimnagar. Chief Minister K. Cha-ndrasekhar Rao and IT minister K. Tarakarama Rao on Thursday attended IT industry body Nasscom’s executive council meeting here. The government has also assured the existing IT firms in Hyderabad that infrastructure bottlenecks, if any, will be removed to facilitate faster growth.
Speaking to the mediapersons after the meeting, the IT minister said the government will soon organise an IT workshop to discuss measures which are required to boost the IT sector in the city. It will also seek Nasscom’s help in evolving in an IT policy.“Hyderabad as a city is at number two in terms of IT exports in the country. It accounts for 12 per cent of total IT exports. With a share of 31 per cent, Bengaluru is at the first place,” said the IT minister adding “We are not happy being number two. We discussed core areas and we are working on it,” he said.
With Rs 57,000 crore IT exports during 2013-14, Telangana as a state ranks fourth in the country. He also pointed out that Telangana is attracting significant investments from multinational companies. The minister also said that Amazon and Google are developing permanent facilities in Hyderabad while Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Cyient are also expanding.
Mr Rao said both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have the drive and are aggressive in promoting the IT sector and hoped that both of them be the leading states in the country.
“We are for the development of both the states, although we want one per cent higher growth in Telangana,” said the minister, who is son of the Telangana Chief Minister. Nasscom vice-chairm-an B.V.R. Mohan Reddy said the meeting with the Telangana CM was reassuring. He said the uncertainty prevailed for last five years had come to an end.