KTR reiterates the need for 3Is-infrastructure, innovation and inclusive growth

Telangana State is now considering to bring out a new Integrated Township Policy shortly. This will aim at spreading the development to new towns and cities for a distributed model of growth. The proposal will be taken up once again at the Cabinet meeting, said IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao.

Speaking at the virtual conference on ‘Telangana’s Real Estate and Infra Prospects in the Covid World’, organised by the CII, he said the State is in favour of a distributed model of growth. It is bringing out TS-BPass, on the lines of TS-iPass, for the real estate sector and this is likely to be operational by September end, he said.

The State is also contemplating to rank the cities and towns in the State on a Green Space Index, which will take into cognizance the efforts that will be taken up by the respective towns on the greenery initiatives as well energy efficiency measures, the minister said. On the Secretariat plan, KTR said the new building will conform to the green building standards.

Touching up on varied topics, the minister urged the real estate and infrastructure sectors to find opportunities in the times of covid. He pointed out that infrastructure will continue to play a key role in attracting and sustaining investments to the State. He reiterated the need for 3Is- infrastructure, innovation and inclusive growth.

The Jal Sakhthi Ministry had lauded the efforts of the Telangana Government and said the latter has succeeded in providing potable water to 98.3 per cent of households, the Minister said.

Growth will continue to be driven by the middle income groups. However, there is a need to focus on innovations. There is no noteworthy innovation from India in the past two decades, he said. Referring to the fact that the Government banned 59 apps of Chinese origin, the minister said that China could not impose any ban on India made apps operating in China. The reason for this



was there were no apps from India, he said adding that it is a provocation to up the innovation game.

Real estate and infrastructure continues to be the second largest employment creation after agriculture. It employs a lot of unskilled and semi skilled labour as well and there is a need for innovation in the segments, he said.

On the city front, he said Hyderabad has been consistently ranked high by agencies like Mercer, JLL Global Index and others. In terms of office space absorption, Hyderabad is a key player and accounts for about 20 per cent of the total office space absorption. It is now in the same league as Bengaluru.

Continuing efforts to make the city safer, the city will double the number of CC cameras to ten lakh from the current five lakh, the minister said.

IT apart, the city has been growing from strength to strength in medical and life sciences, medical devices, pharma and bulk drugs and others. Despite the difficult time, the city has been successful in attracting some big ticket investments including a research and development centre by medical devices company Medtronics. Hyderabad is now the hub of bulks drugs manufacturing accounting for about 40 per cent of the total production in India. It also accounts for more than a third of global vaccine production, KTR said adding that Pharma City coming up in Hyderabad will be the biggest pharma manufacturing cluster.

The State is expecting more investments in life sciences, health care. There will also be convergence of IT and these sectors as well, the Minister said citing Novartis as an example, which has 6,000 people working for it in Hyderabad.

The IT Minister said five IT Parks are coming up in the eastern part of the city towards Uppal and he was looking forward to an IT park in the northern side of the city between Kompally and Medchal.