The recent news that Hyderabad is the best city to live in India as per the rating done by Mercer’s Quality of Living survey for 2023 has come as an icing on the cake for the citizens heading to Christmas, New Year and a year that has seen a lot of action.
To top it, Hyderabad won this rating for the 6th time in the last eight years, beating competition from Bengaluru, Pune and the top metros. During 2022-23, Hyderabad logged the best performance in the IT exports and job creation too.
In short, Brand Hyderabad continued to be vibrant, growing and attracting a sizeable number of global and Indian investors to fuel its expansion and keep shining.
But, the biggest change that happened was the shift in power from the K Chandrasekhar Rao led BRS ( Bharatiya Rastra Samithi) government to a Cong(I) government with A Revanth Reddy as the Chief Minister.
The BRS got big thumbs up in Hyderabad and neighbouring districts winning 19 out of 20 Assembly seats. Some analysts attribute it to a mix of the performance, especially the Industry friendly policies and the effective leadership of K T Rama Rao as the minister for IT, Industry and Municipal Administration and the BJP and AIMIM holding the Cong (I) at bay.
In the 9.5 year rule of the TRS turned BRS, Hyderabad witnessed tremendous growth in the IT, ITeS, Realty, Life Science, Hospitality and Retail industry sectors. The infrastructure too was supporting the expansion.
Post the defeat of the BRS government, an important question doing the rounds is: Will brand Hyderabad be impacted and the city loses steam in its accelerated growth story? Will the Cong (I) government undo some of the policies or build on them?
Hyderabad will hold
One of the prominent catalysts that enhanced brand Hyderabad globally is undoubtedly the Cyber Towers of Madhapur. Coincidentally, this building, which housed the first set of big IT companies completed its Silver Jubilee year on November 22. With the Model election code in place, there was hardly any official celebration.
The building was inaugurated 25 years ago by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996 in the presence of Chief Minister of united AP, N Chandrababu Naidu and other officials. It set into motion the impressive strides Hyderabad has made in the decades that followed in the IT & ITeS sectors. The entire area of Madhapur, Kondapur and Gachibowli has turned into an impressive and bustling IT Hub.
In these two and half decades, political power changed, the new State of Telangana was formed, agitations were held, but all these had very little impact on the perception that Hyderabad is one of the best investment destinations for several sectors.
Therefore, the coming to power of the Cong (I) Party led by Anumula Revanth Reddy, will also not deflate the development momentum but will only try to further accelerate it. Being a part of the realty sector himself, Revanth Reddy knows the advantages too well.
At the most, skeptics feel, there could be a short period of subdued activity as the new dispensation tries to dig its feet in into the governance mode. But, going by the initial actions of the government it can be inferred that it is gung-ho. The appointment of D Sridhar Babu as the Minister for IT is a clear pointer. The five-time MLA and former Minister is conversant with the sector and articulate.
How will the Cong(I) government manage the Modi government which might be anything but friendly to the initiatives. But then, the BRS too claimed it did not find favour to its projects and funding connected with the NDA government despite maintaining an ‘Issue based’ support role. KTR, the IT and industry minister consistently criticised the Centre on this count during the election campaigns. Yet, the BRS needs to be lauded for maintaining a high momentum of growth throughout its two terms. It created the larger T-Hub, We-Hub for women entrepreneurs and T Works. The realty sector gained and so did the BRS party image.
Let us look at the progress made during the last 25 years by Hyderabad in the industry. The picture is clear that the city is a winner in the IT, life science, realty and eCommerce areas with global biggies setting up huge presence.
Two major factors that are key to this continuum despite regime changes at the State and Union are— fundamental advantages of cost effective workforce, climate, multiculturalism, land availability etc. Secondly, continuity in policies, incentives and ease of doing business that successive governments have provided has ensured that the skeptics are wrong. There is no reason to believe that the present Cong (I) government will not exploit the obvious benefits in the near future too.
In 2004, when Chandrababu Naidu lost the election with the NDA go at the Centre of Vajpayee despite the ‘India Shining’ campaign, many thought the city will lose, especially the IT sector. The reason was the assumption that Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who came to power riding in the support of farmers, government employees and the poor believing in his promises would not pursue the pro-active policies.
But, the YSR government which provided solid support to the Cong(I) led, United Front government of Dr Manmohan Singh in Delhi not only continued the policies but gave a much needed push to the infrastructure sector through the Outer Ring Roads (ORR), International Airport etc.
Even during the most difficult phase of political unrest during the separate Telangana statehood (2009-2014) with ad hoc CMs – K Rosaiah and Kiran Kumar Reddy following the tragic death of YSR in a helicopter crash, the business climate and industry friendly approach was never allowed to suffer.
The BRS Govt. led by K Chandrasekhar Rao quickly unveiled an industry policy called TS iPass, made K T Rama Rao the minister for IT. With his pro active and energetic approach, KTR, the young minister was popular and emerged not just as the most visible face of the BRS but quite impactful nationally and globally in attracting, interacting and leading road shows to make Hyderabad the destination for all the big MNC (Multinational Corporations) in the sector.
In the last decade Hyderabad has not just emerged among the top three destinations for the IT & ITeS sector, but also for the Life Sciences, especially with the vaccine development for COVID-19 by the consortia led by Bharat Biotech and the range of drugs to combat the Corona virus manufactured by Pharma companies in the city.
During a visit to the city in 2022, the former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia termed Hyderabad’s growth as the best in the country in the past 25 years.
The other important factors that support the continuous growth and brand Hyderabad are the availability of talent, land for offices, academic institutions for collaborative work, engineering colleges, healthcare and hospitality sector are all in place and expanding. The overall buoyancy in the infrastructure development has helped the creation of ‘Cyberabad’, which is growing with the latest facilities in office, home, road, uninterrupted power etc.
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