Hyderabad: Deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, on Tuesday, December 9, while addressing the Telangana Rising Global Summit, said that achieving a USD 3 trillion economy is only possible when investment is combined with innovation.
Addressing the Capital and Productivity panel as the chief guest, the deputy CM said that Telangana needs to grow at least 16 times its current economic size. He called the 2047 Vision, not just a document but “a pledge to our future.”
“We have set the ambitious target of making Telangana a 3-trillion-dollar economy by 2047. Writing numbers on paper is easy… but the real question is—how?”
According to Bhatti, growth at such a massive scale is not possible by only building infrastructure at the basic level. “To achieve this exponential growth, we must change the fundamental equation of our economy,” he said.
He explained the equation of growth in simple terms “Capital + Innovation = Productivity.”
Bhatti said the Indian government has long centered around permissions, licenses, and paperwork, but simply improving the ease of doing business is no longer enough. He added that with the world moving at a fast pace involving deep tech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and quantum computing, ‘ease of doing business’ is only a baseline requirement.
Bhatti outlined the Vision document’s spatial strategy to make the region Asia’s Innovation Capital: Cure (Urban), Pure (Peri-Urban), and Rare (Rural). “We have the plan, and we have the talent, but innovation is expensive—and more importantly, innovation involves risk,” he said.
Comparing the strategy with banks, Bhatti stated that innovation cannot rely on safety. “From the internet to space travel, the world’s biggest breakthroughs happened because someone was willing to take a risk for years without expecting immediate profit,” he observed.
Taking deep tech beyond Cyberabad
Bhatti also said that Telangana’s vision is rural-centric (Rare). He further stated that AI and technology often pushed into the box of software, and that how can deep tech also solve the “boring problems” of the state.
“Such as improving the productivity of weavers in Warangal or farmers in Nizamabad? How do we attract capital into these sectors?” he asked. Acknowledging the growing fear that people will lose their jobs to AI and automation, he posed a question on how to address the issue. The Telangana deputy CM also questioned whether the government is required to steer clear of budding innovation as critics often advise.
Telangana Rising Global Summit
The two-day summit kicked off on December 8 and was attended by several government officials and global leaders.
It is being held at the sprawling 100-acre campus at Future City in Kandukur, Ranga Reddy district. The second day saw the virtual unveiling of the Telangana Thalli statue to mark the second anniversary of the Congress government in the state.
The event has delegates from 44 countries, with 154 participants and approximately 2,000 international and domestic guests attending.
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