The Government of Telangana will not spare the two suspended employees of Telangana State Public Service (TSPSC) and those behind them in thee question paper leak case, state minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Saturday.

Stating that one of the accused is an active worker of the BJP, he once again requested the Director General of Police (DGP) to investigate if there was any conspiracy to defame the government and provoke youth.

KTR addressed a news conference after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao reviewed the situation created by the leakage of question paper of an examination conducted by TSPSC for recruitment of assistant engineers in various government departments.

The case has rocked the Commission, which cancelled four examinations, including Group-I examination conducted during the last few months and decided to re-conduct the same.

The question paper leak also triggered a political row with the opposition parties demanding judicial probe or inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and resignation of minister KTR and even the chief minister.

Rejecting the demand by the opposition parties for his resignation, KTR questioned them in what way he was concerned with the case. He reminded the opposition parties that TSPSC is a constitutional body and the state government has no role in its day-to-day functioning.

“I am minister for information technology but does that mean I am responsible for every computer in the state,” he asked.

The accused employees of TSPSC had committed theft of question papers from a computer in a confidential section of the Commission and shared the same with the other accused for Rs 10 lakh.

KTR also appealed to the opposition parties not to play with the lives of the youth by instigating them against the government for their narrow political interests. “The boys are sensitive and they are upset as they have to write the exams again. I request the opposition not to provoke them,” he said.

The minister also appealed to the youth to understand the efforts being made by the government to allay any doubts by reconducting the examinations.

Stating that TSPSC had been working in a transparent manner during the last nine years due to various measures taken by the government, he said unfortunately a mistake of two individuals has bad name to the entire institution.

“It’s not the failure of the system or institution. It’s because of the mistake of two individuals that lakhs of youth are facing difficulties. We are working on how to rectify and ensure that such a thing does not happen in the future. We are consulting experts and will bring whatever reforms required,” he said.

He assured the youth that the government will not spare Praveen Kumar and Rajasekhar Reddy or whoever may be behind them. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) is conducting an impartial probe and stringent action will be taken against those found involved, he said.

The minister alleged that Rajasekhar Reddy was an active worker of the BJP and had been appealing to people to support the BJP. He displayed photographs of the contract employee of TSPSC with the BJP leaders.

“If such a person is caught in the case, it raises many doubts. The police will investigate if there is a conspiracy behind this. They will find out if there is a criminal motive to defame the government and provoke youth. Who is behind this, be it from the BJP, Congress or BRS there is no question of sparing them,” he said.

KTR claimed that when TSPSC was issuing notifications for recruitments in the government departments, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was calling it a conspiracy. The BJP leader had alleged that the government was keeping youth busy with exams thus not allowing them to come to the BJP.

KTR announced that the government has decided to provide free coaching material to candidates preparing for re-examinations.

He said the coaching material for all four exams will be available online for free. Study circles for SCs, STs, BCs, minorities and the poor among upper castes will be strengthened across the state. The reading rooms in all districts will remain open round-the-clock to enable students to prepare for exams. They will be provided free study material and food.

The government of Telangana is on a mission to make the state a women entrepreneurs’ hub, Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Wednesday.

Rao said the upcoming launch of a single window mechanism and targeted interventions will provide a professional identity for women entrepreneurs and enable them to scale their businesses, creating more employment opportunities in Tier 2 and 3 cities.

The minister was speaking at an event organised to mark the fifth anniversary of ‘WE HUB’, India’s first and only state-led incubator.

He said WE HUB has played a significant role in engaging with over 35,000 women entrepreneurs across India.

The achievements of women entrepreneurs were recognised and they were honoured for their contributions at the event organised on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

According to the organisers, WE HUB has been a beacon of hope for women entrepreneurs in India over the past five years, providing them with the resources and support they need to succeed in the business world.

A video presentation was made showcasing the projects, initiatives and programmes that have helped women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey. Five successful women entrepreneurs shared their inspiring stories of overcoming challenges and achieving success in their respective fields at the event.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology (IT), emphasised the importance of women’s participation in entrepreneurship and applauded WE HUB’s role in promoting women entrepreneurs.

Over the past five years, WE HUB has incubated 3,194 startups and SMEs founded by women. It has successfully engaged with over 5,000 women entrepreneurs, 1,247 students, 986 social impact entrepreneurs and 609 urban entrepreneurs. The incubator has been actively working towards enabling women-led startups across sectors.

“At WE HUB, we believe that women entrepreneurs are a force to be recognised. Our mission is to provide them with the resources and support they need to succeed, regardless of their background or social circumstances. Through our work, we have seen first-hand the incredible impact that women can have on their communities and the economy,” said WE HUB CEO, Deepthi Ravula.

WE HUB is the first-of-its-kind and only state-run platform for women entrepreneurs run by the government of Telangana. It aims to create a supportive community for aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs where they can interact with venture capitalists for funding, connect with corporates for scaling up their business, get advice from mentors to fine-tune ideas and benefit from technical mentoring.

Telangana’s Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday directed municipal authorities to complete in three months the work related to a steel bridge which is expected to ease congestion in the central part of Hyderabad.

The minister conducted a surprise inspection of the works related to the steel bridge from Indira Park to VST and other development works.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) engineering team is constructing the 2.62-km long four-lane bi-directional steel bridge.

The minister exhorted the officials to complete the works in three months and asked them to coordinate with Traffic Police to impose traffic diversions needed for the purpose.

He also impressed upon the officials that the safety of workers and the public has to be given priority.

The minister said that the steel bridge will be developed on the lines of other projects completed under the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).

The GHMC is constructing the steel bridge corridor at a cost of nearly Rs 426 crore.

The project will especially serve people in Musheerabad, Khairatabad, Amberpet and surrounding locations. It will ease the flow of traffic at RTC Cross Roads.

Stating that there was a demand for the project from the past two decades, KTR said that a steel bridge is being constructed instead of the traditional concrete bridge so that the works are completed at the earliest.

He said that the project will give relief from traffic congestion to lakhs of people.

The minister also inspected the Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) work at Hussain Sagar Surplus Nala. He assessed the retaining wall being constructed at Ashok Nagar.

He said that a huge amount of funds were allocated for the Hussain Sagar Surplus Nala and constructions such as the retaining wall were taken up.

He said that this will protect low lying areas from flood water from the lake. He asked the GHMC officials to complete the works before monsoons set in.

The government of Telangana will work on a programme to position Hyderabad as the “Health-Tech Mecca” of the world, state industries minister K.T. Rama Rao announced on Friday.

Through various incubator programmes, and access to deep computing resources, the state will actively support startups that drive the convergence of healthcare and technology.

He exuded confidence that a few global health-tech unicorns will emerge out of this programme.

Addressing BioAsia, the leading life sciences event which began here on Friday, he described Hyderabad as the life sciences capital of Asia.

The 20th edition of BioAsia is being attended by healthcare, pharma, and life sciences leaders from more than 100 countries.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, recalled that the state had set out a vision of doubling the value of the life sciences ecosystem to $100 billion by 2030.

“A lot of people felt that it was too ambitious. I am pleased to announce that the ecosystem value has already touched $80 billion in 2022. This represents a phenomenal ecosystem value growth in Telangana at a mind boggling 23 per cent over the last two years compared to the national average of about 14 per cent,” he said.

He exuded confidence that the state will achieve the target by 2025 itself, five years ahead of schedule.

“We are proud to state that Hyderabad is the only city in the country that has an ever-growing Genome Valley, an expanding Medtech Park and an upcoming Pharma City, which will be the world’s largest,” he said.

KTR said the state attracted net new investment of more than $3 billion over the last 7 years. More than 4.5 lakh jobs were created during the same period.

“Our ultimate aim is to make Telangana, the knowledge capital of the world’s life sciences industry. A key component of this is the growth of the lifesciences services sector. We already serve more than 1,000 lifesciences companies globally, including the top 10 pharma companies, in their innovation journey,” he said.

The minister explained that this is being done through the cutting-edge work being executed by R&D and technology partners like Aragen, Sai, Syngene, Deloitte, Accenture, Tech Mahindra, among many others.

He pointed out that 4 of the top 10 global innovator companies now have a direct presence in Hyderabad through their dedicated centers. These centers drive core R&D, digital and engineering activities, thereby contributing to bringing lifesaving cost-effective therapies and devices to patients world-wide.

He said convergence of healthcare and technology is one of the four pillars the government is building.

The other three are complex manufacturing at scale, R&D and innovation, building high-end, cross value chain Global Capability Centre (GCCs)

“Our ultimate vision through building these four pillars is to play a significant part in advancing the quality of human lives world-wide. And we can only do it if we bring forth the spirit of collaboration. Hence, theme of BioAsia 2023 “Advancing for one” couldn’t be more relevant,” he said.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic has proved the value of collaboration and its impact on people’s wellbeing, when the world came together to overcome one of humanity’s greatest healthcare challenges. Hence, the theme Advancing for One to celebrate the spirit of collaboration and promoting human prosperity.

KTR pointed out that Telangana contributes 40 per cent of India’s Pharma production and is home to more than 1,000 life sciences companies.

“We are the only region in the world to have more than 200 FDA approved sites for pharmaceutical manufacturing which produce both innovator and generic medicines. Our capability will be further strengthened with the launch of Hyderabad Pharma City, which is the world’s largest and sustainable integrated pharma park.”

“Hyderabad has been leading biological production in the country with its key players like Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Shantha Biotech, Aurobindo, Hetero, Gland Pharma and Virchow Biotech. We are working on establishing Biopharma Hub (B-hub), which is a first-of-its-kind Growth-Phase Center and Biopharma Scale-up Manufacturing facility in India,” he added.

He revealed that the state was also making investments in the Cell and Gene Therapy space and e-working towards establishing an Institute of Curative Medicine in Hyderabad with the aim to provide affordable development and commercialisation of the new age curative therapies (particularly cell and gene therapy) for disease pertinent to India.

Chandanvelly and adjoining Sitarampur near Hyderabad will become Telangana’s largest industrial cluster in future, state Industries and Commerce Minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Wednesday.

Tech giant Microsoft, global e-commerce leader Amazon, and leading textile company Kitex Garments are setting up their units in this cluster, where textile major Welspun India Ltd on Wednesday opened its second manufacturing facility.

Microsoft has reportedly acquired 52 acres in Chandanvelly to establish one of the three data centres in Hyderabad. Amazon is also planning to set up a data centre at Chandanvelly.

Kitex Garments, which has already signed MoU with Telangana government to invest Rs 2,406 crore in the state, is setting up one of the two units in this cluster.

Sitarampur will be one of the electric vehicle manufacturing clusters under Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV).

Inaugurating the Welspun facility, Rama Rao recalled that five years ago when Welspun came to Chandanvelly, there was nothing in the area.

He also recalled that Welspun had originally planned to set up the unit at Kutch in Gujarat but when he met Welspun Chairman Balkrishan Goenka and explained to him the strengths of the region and assured full support, the latter dropped the idea of setting up plant in Gujarat and choose Telangana.

He pointed out that Welspun started two units with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore and welcomed Goenka’s announcement that in the next 5-6 years, they will invest another Rs 3,000 to 5,000 crore to develop what he calls Welspun valley.

On this occasion, Welspun Group, a global conglomerate, also announced that it would set up an IT/ITeS center in Chandanvelly.

Mentioning that Welspun is already operating in Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the IT/ TES sector, he said that the company has decided to set up their IT Centre in their industrial premises in Chandanvelly.

KTR, as the Minister is popularly known, thanked Goenka for their decision and hoped that this would strengthen the Telangana government’s goal of expanding IT to tier 2 and 3 cities. With the establishment of Welspun IT Centre, the desire of the local people to have IT companies in their region will also be fulfilled and 1,000-1,200 local youth will get an opportunity to do IT jobs.

With an investment of Rs 500 crore, the advanced textile facility of Welspun Advanced Material India Ltd, inaugurated on Wednesday, is Welspun’s second investment in the same vicinity after setting up a flooring facility valued at Rs 1,500 crores two years ago.

The plant will manufacture Spun-Lace which is used in categories like hygiene applications, family care and products that are used by individuals in their daily lives. The new plant will also support the Group’s new vision of “Har Ghar Se Har Dil Tak Welspun” according to which, the Welspun Group wants to touch the lives of end consumers through the businesses in their portfolio.

Dipali Goenka, Joint MD and CEO, Welspun India said that the new facility will create over 12,000 direct and indirect jobs that will benefit the surrounding communities of Chandanvelly.

Automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will set up an electric vehicle manufacturing facility as expansion of its existing manufacturing facilities at Zaheerabad in Telangana,

As part of its Last Mile Mobility business, Mahindra & Mahindra will manufacture electric 3 and 4 wheelers at this state-of-the-art facility.

The Telangana government signed an MoU with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd for establishing a manufacturing facility on the sidelines of the first edition of Mobility Next Hyderabad Summit.

The government said on Thursday that the facility will involve an investment of about Rs.1,000 crores, creating employment for about 800-1,000 persons.

M&M will collaborate with the state government to lay down the roadmap for development of electric vehicle and energy storage systems manufacturing units in the state.

Industries Minister K. T. Rama Rao welcomed the investment from M&M. He stated that the proposed facility by M&M will greatly contribute to the goal of Telangana Mobility Valley to further accelerate the growth of sustainable mobility in India.

“Location at Zaheerabad, one of the 4 Mega EV Manufacturing clusters being developed by the state, will allow M&M to access state-of-the-art infrastructure planned to be created by the state in the mega clusters,” he said.

Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director (Auto & Farm), Mahindra & Mahindra, thanked the Telangana government for their long-standing partnership. “We are delighted to consider expansion of the current manufacturing unit at Zaheerabad for our new EV Manufacturing investment. This investment will help continue our leadership position in electric 3-Wheeler category,” he said.

The Telangana government on Monday unveiled Telangana Mobility Valley, India’s first new mobility-focused cluster to accelerate growth of sustainability mobility in the country.

Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV) aims to attract investments of around Rs 50,000 crore and generate more than 4 lakh jobs in the next 5 years.

Industries and Commerce Minister K. T. Rama Rao made the announcement while inaugurating the first edition of the Mobility Next Hyderabad EV Summit.

He said that TMV has already generated significant momentum amongst the industry. Amara Raja will invest Rs 9,500 crore in setting up Li-Ion giga-factory while Hyundai will invest Rs 1,400 crore for setting Automotive Proving Grounds.

Bilti Electric to invest Rs 1,100 crore for setting up e3W manufacturing plant while Allox to invest Rs 750 crore to set up India’s first multi gigawatt cathode manufacturing.

The minister revealed that Attero would invest Rs 600 crore in setting up a battery recycling plant and Gravton would invest Rs 150 crore in setting up e2W manufacturing.

Apollo will set up a Digital Innovation Centre for driving efficiency. Bosch Global Software Technologies will hire up to 3,000 employees to develop AI and safety solutions in automotives. Fisker has set-up its first facility outside the US for developing engineering R&D. MG Group has set-up an EV Park in Hyderabad to support start-ups.

The Telangana government, along with TASK, has set up the Kalam Centre For Automotive Excellence (CAE) to upskill youth in e-Mobility.

Further, investments aggregating Rs 3,000 crore are in advanced stages and will be announced in next two weeks. These investments will further strengthen the electric 3-wheeler, electric 2-wheeler, and charging equipment manufacturing ecosystem in Telangana, Rama Rao said.

The state has engaged leading consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group to help conceptualise and develop a truly differentiated vision for the TMV, which aims to facilitate companies across all segments of sustainable mobility – electric 2-wheeler/3-wheeler/4-wheeler, advanced cell chemistry and hydrogen fuel cells, Tier 1 and Tier 2 Component manufacturers and Auto Engineering R&D companies

As part of TMV, the state is developing four mega clusters in and around Hyderabad: EV manufacturing clusters in Zaheerabad and Seetharampur, energy storage system (ESS) cluster in Divitipally, and innovation cluster at Yenkathala.

“Each of the clusters will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to reduce cost of operations for their tenant. For instance, we are setting India’s most comprehensive shared testing and validation infrastructure at Yenkathala. This includes state of the art labs for EV Powertrain, EV Battery, ADAS, NVH, EMI-EMC and Component Test Labs and India’s first CAV proving grounds to test Autonomous Vehicles in 100+ acres,” the minister said.

The state government has signed a MOU with ATS-TUV Rheinland, a leading German services provider which will invest Rs 250 crore to develop and operate these facilities in Yenkathala.

“Our ESS cluster will have world class infrastructure to manufacture lithium-ion cells, cathode active battery material, and other lithium-ion components. The cluster will also have a battery recycling facility to minimise carbon footprint and reduce costs of production for developing battery packs for EVs,” the minister said.

He said in TMV the government will bring together industry and the academia to setup series of Centers of Excellence (CoE) to create industry ready talent.

He announced that India’s first CoE in Automotive cybersecurity in collaboration between BITS Hyderabad and Bosch, will be launched in the upcoming academic year.

This COE between BITS and Bosch will set an example for the country for creating talent to meet the changing requirements of the automotive industry

“Further, we will be announcing at least four other COEs over the next few weeks on topics like Automotive Cybersecurity, Automotive Artificial Intelligence, Electrochemistry and Modelling & Simulation,” he added.

The minister said that another focus area for TMV is to promote mobility startups in the state

T-Hub, India’s largest innovation centre, has partnered with leading mobility corporates such as Maruti Suzuki, Nissan, and Uber for identifying innovative start-ups and has incubated successful start-ups such as Biliti Electric, Hala Mobility etc

The state has entered into an MoU with Plug and Play to set up co-working and incubation spaces for start-ups. To identify and support entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, the state is organising ‘Grand Start-up challenge’ as part of Hyderabad E-Mobility week. State will be supporting selected ideas through grants and incubation support. Over 100 start-ups in the mobility space have submitted cutting edge ideas.

He announced that the Hyderabad E Mobility will be held regularly to foster collaboration by bringing together the thought leaders, experts and global automotive ecosystem players to chart a course for sustainable mobility.

In addition to the Summit, the Hyderabad E-Mobility week includes RallE, which was organized with an objective to promote e-mobility amongst the citizens and saw participation from more than 700 EVs.

Hyderabad E-Motor Show will provide a platform to the automotive companies to showcase their next gen EV models.

To showcase the power of E-Mobility, Hyderabad will become the first city in India to host the Formula E race.

Telangana’s minister for industries, commerce and information technology K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday called for politicians to focus on economics rather than on politics.

He said it was unfortunate that leaders in India focus on politics and not on the economy.

India is in a perennial mode of elections and politicians were always more focused on winning the elections than creating wealth for the next generations, he said while addressing at the NHRD ‘Decode The Future- The National Conference’.

“We are the world’s largest democracy and elections happen throughout the year and the leaders are always seized with politics,” he said.

K.T. Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR, also underlined the need for ensuring equitable distribution of wealth.

India was the most populous country in the world and yet a majority of the wealth of the nation was owned by a few individuals, he pointed out.

He said it was the primary responsibility of every single government to ensure wealth distribution.

“We need to think whether the leadership of our nation is giving us the aspirations of being a 25 trillion economy, besides how the wealth can be distributed equally among all sections,” KTR said.

“We are a nation with the maximum number of poor people on the planet. I am not preaching Communism but unless wealth is distributed equitably and unless the government takes care of the most vulnerable, we may have civil strife,” he warned.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that freebie culture is bad for the country, KTR said the fact remains that India is still a third world country.

He said that India which recently surpassed China as the most populous state with 1.4 billion has the biggest advantage both in terms of natural and Human resources.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader believes that the biggest challenge for a leader is not capital management but people management.

He pointed out that the maiden age of 65 per cent of India’s think force is 35 years and maiden age of 50 per cent of think force is 28 years.

“We are the youngest nation on the planet but we are not using this asset effectively,” he said.

Unfortunately, the youth were being trained and groomed to be job seekers and not job providers, he said.

Stating that the statistics are sometimes misleading, he said while India is fifth largest economy in terms of GDP, it ranks 142 with a per capita income of only $2,400.

KTR said India and China had almost similar GDPs in the 1980s. Now, China was a 18 trillion dollar economy and India was still languishing at 3.4 trillion dollars. Similarly, Japan, despite its geographical and topographical challenges, is the third largest economy in the world.

He said China managed its aspirations and development goals and ensured that its natural and human resources were put to effective use. He said Japan could achieve amazing growth despite all adversities because of the intellect of its people.

Listing out the rapid strides made by Telangana during the last eight years, especially the growth in GSDP and the per capita income, he claimed that If only the rest of India had performed at par with Telangana, the country would have already become a 4.25 trillion dollar economy.

KTR claimed that Telangana made good use of the natural and human resources and achieved 15 percent CAGR. Telangana’s per capita income in 2014 was Rs 1.24 lakh and increased to Rs 2.75 lakh while the national average was Rs 1.49 lakh, he said.

He pointed out that in the last 8.5 years, Telangana issued nearly 22,000 clearances for industries through TS-IPASS and generated 21 lakh direct jobs.

He also explained how Telangana was marching ahead with a fine balance of development and welfare.

“If only the rest of India can work like Telangana and if only the rest of India is led by a leader like KCR, 5 trillion is a joke, we can reach 15 trillion dollars,” he said.

American multinational food company PepsiCo is planning to expand its operation in Hyderabad and add 1,200 employees within the next one and half years.

The Global Business Services Center of PepsiCo which started with 250 people in 2019 has become 2,800 strong now. With the expansion, the headcount will grow to 4,000.

This was announced by the company on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Roberto Azevedo, EVP Corporate Affairs, PepsiCo, met Telangana’s minister for industries and commerce at Telangana Pavilion and discussed the company’s expansion plans in the state.

Minister KTR expressed happiness over the rapid growth of the PepsiCo’s Global Business Services Center in Hyderabad and assured that the state government will extend all possible cooperation for all future investments of the company.

PesiCo GBS is currently delivering critical products and solutions for company operations and digitalising HR, and Financial Services of the company.

PepsiCo is keen to participate in sustainability initiatives in partnership with the Government of Telangana including improving water efficiency, recycling and reuse of plastics, according to a statement from the minister’s office in Hyderabad.

During the meeting, the manufacturing opportunities for popular PepsiCo food products in Telangana state were also discussed.

IT & Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Dr Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Special Secretary, Invest Telangana were present during the meeting.

Telangana with astounding progress achieved since inception of the state in 2014 stands as a role model, said state minister for industries and information technology K.T. Rama Rao.

Before heading to the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, the Minister spoke at the ‘Meet and Greet’ programme organised by the Indian diaspora in Zurich.

Indians living in Switzerland, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and other countries attended the gathering, according to the Minister’s office in Hyderabad.

He urged the NRIs to be Telangana’s goodwill ambassador, participate in government’s programmes like Mana Ooru — Mana Badi and promote Telangana and India.

Urging them to be part of the state’s growth story, KTR assured of complete support even if anyone wants to make small investments in the state and create jobs.

Giving a peek into development, the minister said that paddy production was at 68 lakh tonnes and procurement by the government was 24 lakh tonnes in 2014 and in 2022, the production and procurement grew to 3.5 crore tonnes and over two crore tonnes, respectively.

The IT exports out of Telangana grew from Rs. 57,000 crore to Rs 1.83 lakh crore, per capita of Telangana grew from Rs 1.24 lakh in 2014 to Rs 2.78 lakh, while national average is Rs 1.49 lakh, he said

Speaking about the progress achieved in the villages, KTR said that now every village has a nursery, vaikunta dhamam, and 10 per cent of gram panchayat budget is earmarked as green budget, and the government has provided a tractor and a tanker for every gram panchayat in the state.

KTR said that the needs of farmers were taken care of by providing free power round-the-clock, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bhima, high quality seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, and Rythu Vedikas were built.

He said that Palle Pragathi was a role model, and that the needs of people in villages were thoroughly thought through by Chief Minister KCR, which no other Chief Minister or Prime Minister did.

The Industries Minister said that five revolutions are unfolding in Telangana, which are: Pink revolution (meat), yellow revolution (oil palm), blue revolution (inland fisheries), white revolution (milk) and green revolution (crops).

Telangana’s Minister for Industries and Information Technology, K.T. Rama Rao has sought budgetary support from the Centre for various industrial projects in the state.

Reminding the Narendra Modi-led Central Government about the promises made to Telangana, he said that the upcoming Union Budget 2023-24 is the right occasion for the Centre to show its commitment to the development of the state.

After writing a series of letters urging the Centre to support various sectors in the state, Rama Rao on Saturday dashed off a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about the budgetary support that Central government has to extend to various projects in Telangana industrial sector.

KTR, as the Telangana minister is popularly known, said that if the Centre truly believes in the slogans – Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, then support has to be extended to progressive states like Telangana which is filled with the potential to actualise those slogans.

Stating that Telangana’s pioneering policies achieved notable progress in the industrial sector after formation of the state, the minister said that world-class infrastructure is being created to meet the needs of industries and attract more investments.

As part of it, KTR said, India’s largest textile park, world’s largest single pharma cluster – Hyderabad Pharma City are being established. He said that the industrial parks will usher in development of not only the state but the entire country.

Reiterating that the country’s progress can be fast tracked if states are strengthened, KTR sought huge funds to be allotted to Telangana which became a key player in the nation’s industrial sector.

KTR said that though the state sought Centre’s support many a time in the past, it did not receive sufficient funds in the previous eight Union Budgets introduced by the BJP-led Union government.

In his letter to the Union Finance Minister, KTR listed the industrial corridors, industrial parks and various other projects spread across the state which need budgetary support from the Union government.

He sought funding support for external infrastructure development at NIMZ, Zaheerabad. He said the Centre should provide Rs 500 crore out of the total estimate of Rs 9,500 crore.

KTR also sought budgetary support for development of Hyderabad-Warangal industrial corridor and Hyderabad-Nagpur industrial corridor.

At least 50 per cent of the total cost of Rs 5,000 crore is required to join two nodes of Hyderabad Pharma City and NIMZ Zaheerabad, he wrote.

The Union minister was also urged to provide fund support for development of Hyderabad-Vijayawada industrial corridor. KTR sought Rs 1,500 crore out of Rs 5,000 crore to newly identified Hyderabad, Jadcherla, Gadwal, Kothakota nodes

Establishing a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Jadcherla Industrial Park under TIES scheme and gas allotment for the same, sanction and upgradation of Brownfield Manufacturing Clusters, reopening of Cement Corporation of India in Adilabad, setting up a national design centre in Hyderabad, budgetary support for Hyderabad Pharma City, inclusion of Hyderabad in the proposed Defence Industrial Production corridor, support for development of Kakatiya Mega Textile Park and sanctioning of Mega Powerloom Cluster including Textile Park, Weaving Park and Apparel Park in Sircilla under the Comprehensive Powerloom Cluster Development Scheme (CPCDS) are among the other requests made by the minister.