Hyderabad: In spite of the economic slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Telangana has managed to outperform the national growth rate, with its national gross domestic product share increasing from 4.74% in 2019-20 to 5.0% this year.
In 2020-21, the state also recorded a per-capita income of Rs.2,27,145 compared to the national average of Rs.1,27,768. The state’s performance numbers were released by Telangana IT and industries minister KT Rama Rao, who shared the data while launching the annual Industries department’s annual report on Thursday. He stated that Telangana “boasted” a growth in the IT/ITeS sector with an increase of 12.98% in IT/ITeS export.
During the previous financial year of 20-21, Telangana recorded a total of ₹1,45,522 crore in IT/ITeS exports. “The state has seen more than double the estimated average national growth rate. Telangana continues to attract major investments from companies such as MassMutual, Laxai Life Sciences, Agasthya Foods, Trouw Nutrition, Ester Filmtech and others despite the pandemic induced slowdown,” KTR added.
While the entire country was hit collectively due to the COVID-19 lockdows, Telangana has managed to do slightly better even in terms of economy. The GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) during 2020-21 was Rs. 9.78 lakh crore. Though the growth rate contracted by 1.26% due to the COVID-19 pandemic by, it is significantly better than India’s projected GDP contraction at 8%, said a note from KTR’s office.
The share of Telangana’s economy in National GDP has gone up by 26 basis point to 5.0% in 2020-21 against 4.74% in 2019-20, said the annual report released by KTR. The IT and industries minister released the Information Technology and Industries department annual reports (2020-21) at the Dr. Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute of Telangana on Thursday.
The reports are from Telangana’s seventh year of formation. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (industries and IT) said, “Despite the difficult year, both IT and Industries departments have made significant progress this year and have been able to initiate many new initiatives such as launch of new EV Policy, several new industrial parks and Hyderabad Mega Science & technology Cluster.”
During the launch of the annual reports, KTR said that Telangana’s TS-iPASS system attracted cumulative investments of Rs.2,14,951 crore, creating 15.6 lakh jobs. “Telangana is ranked third in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings for 2019. TSIIC developed 10 new Industrial Parks and allotted 810 acres of land to 453 industries with an expected investment of Rs. 6,023 Crores,” he stated/
The IT minister also stated that one of the first RT-PCR kits approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was developed in India from Hyderabad. “The first indigenously developed vaccine for COVID-19 is the result of the intense efforts of the Hyderabad based, Bharat Biotech,” KTR pointed out. He added that Genome Valley, the largest research and development cluster in India, is gaining traction as the “Vaccine Capital of the world”.
“4 out of 5 leading vaccine manufacturers in India are already in Genome Valley. Biopharma Hub (B-Hub) is a flagship initiative for Genome Valley wherein the state is partnering with Cytiva to strengthen the Biopharma industry in the state by setting up a Biopharma scale up facility,” KTR said.
The IT minister added that Amazon Data Services India Pvt. Ltd. is setting up three data centres in Fab City, Pharma City and Chandanvelly in Telangana with an investment of ₹20,761 Crores ($ 2.77 Bn). The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced a smart data centre in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs. 500 crore, he added.