Hyderabad: Despite their differences, representatives of the main political parties agreed that development was a work in progress and steps were taken in keeping with the needs of the situation historically.
They were speaking at an interactive session on ‘Economy, Industry and Reforms’ held at the FTCCI here.
Shyam Mohan Anantula, chairman of TPCC’s intellectual cell, said that the foundation for the economy was laid by the establishment of public sector enterprises.
“PSUs were created at a time when the private sector was not prepared. Hyderabad itself had many PSUs, which formed the backbone for those who are going abroad now. In keeping with the spirit of democracy we gave voting power to 18-year-olds and involved them in the process,” he said.
BJP leader Karuna Gopal, an independent director with Engineers India Ltd, under the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, opined the nation, which had started well during the Vedic times, went through difficult phases as the nation was culturally plundered.
“We are surging ahead now. We are on top in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sector. With a focus on self-reliance in manufacturing, we have come a long way from being considered a back-office of the world to a vibrant industrial hub. We missed the third revolution and ended up as the dumping ground for hardware,” Karuna Gopal said.
“The country is laying roads at 28 km per day now, which outpaces that of China. Under Narendra Modi we have improved the soft infrastructure that is governance and brought in legislations like GST and RERA to fuel growth,” she said.
BRS former minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that what lay ahead was debatable.
“The service sector contributes 55 per cent to the GDP while the share of industry and manufacturing is 28 per cent. The agriculture sector employs 65 per cent of the people and gets only 17 per cent of the wealth that is created. What is needed is creating people’s purchasing power to propel growth. We increased paddy production from 65 million tonnes to three crore tonnes. The industrial atmosphere was substantial in the last ten years. The 28,000 companies that have been created have created 19 lakh jobs.”
Telangana is the best in capital formation. Debt being cited here is part of development, he added.
On the question of how they would address the challenges in education, health care and job creation, Shyam Mohan cited the party’s ‘Paanch Nyay’ manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, and cited their manifesto for the state, which stressed on creation of district industrial corridors along with improving skills.
Karuna Gopal warned that the nation needed to be prepared for disruption driven by technology.
“We are preparing for Surakshit Bharat. We have fortified our borders as historically pandemics have been followed by wars. There are jobs now even in states like UP and Bihar and the EPFO data shows that more jobs have been created in the formal sector. Skilling will be the most important aspect that we have to concentrate on,” she said.
Referring to what he called the foresight of BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao for equitable development, Laxmaiah said, “Equitable distribution of wealth will lead to better growth. The caste enumeration was done by KCR just after coming to power to plan better.”
