Hyderabad: Minister for IT, Industries KT Rama Rao urged that India should ensure that discussion around the economy assumes centre-stage and divisive politics takes a backseat.
Delivering a keynote speech on ‘Technology for Impact and Scale’ at the 5th development dialogue organised by Kakatiya Sandbox in Nizamabad, KTR held that the origin of education whether it is private or public doesn’t matter as long as a person has the ability to learn. He exemplified chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao who came from a public school and became a first-generation politician.
KTR said that Nizamabad has all the right ingredients to become an attractive IT destination and urged all IT companies to look beyond Hyderabad and consider other districts as well.
Stressing the need to think about why China is ahead of India while both countries had almost similar GDPs in the 1980s, KTR remarked that China has focused on development and India focused on politics, placing development in a backseat.
“Why is China is now a 16 trillion dollar economy while India is still a three trillion dollar economy?”, questioned KTR.
However, he emphasised that Telangana is at the forefront of innovation while addressing representatives of start-up companies.
Sharing his experiences from a recent visit to the World Economic Forum, Davos, the minister said that several countries realized their dependency on China and started spacing from it.
“This gives a great opportunity for India to leverage and surge ahead. India needs to diversify more into manufacturing, services and other sectors. And, India has a great asset in the form of a young think force” he urged.
“Innovators irrespective of their gender, age, region and religion should be given equal and inclusive opportunities to propel India into first world’s orbit,” claimed the minister.
KTR further stressed, “Capital was no more a challenge. Markets were ready to lap the right kind of products. People, especially youth have to think big and globally. They should move on from being job seekers to becoming job providers. Parents should promote entrepreneurship among their children.”
On involving more private people in the administration, KTR stated that bureaucracy in India was more about administrative capabilities, and added that a performance appraisal system needs to be introduced in the public sector as well.
Pointing out that the Telangana government has already 50 percent women representation in Gram Panchayats, Zilla Parishad and Municipalities, KTR underlined the promotion of women leaders in the state.
Telangana had also demanded 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures and looked forward to it being tabled in the BJP government at the Centre.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Masrath Fatima | 
