KTR Goes On A Charm Offensive With The IT Crowd

“Power crisis is a legacy we got. We are tackling it at multiple levels.”  Telangana IT minister KTR replied in a matter-of-fact tone to a delegate’s question on unscheduled power-cuts. The minister’s candid answers showed he meant business by bringing with him multiple government departments including GHMC, HMDA, Water Board, Infrastructure Corporation of Telangana, Police and Industries to address issues faced by the IT industry. This is even while he was at his best wit, frequently regaling the audience, around 800 delegates, in laughter. While admitting the power problems and that there are not even enough transmission lines to buy power from neighboring states, he said concrete plans are on to get the lines in 12 months and for the State to be power-surplus in 36 months.

Here is the full speech of the IT Minister:

Answering a delegate’s question on whether he should move to AP if it offers more tax benefits, the much-hyped competitive incentives due to Centre’s tax holidays, KTR put the record straight that whatever tax related benefits AP would get are due to provisions in AP ReOrg Act and that the same Act gives the same benefits to Telangana as well. So despite the propaganda and hype around AP’s tax program, the minister said that would not be exclusive to AP and that companies in Telangana, both existing and new, will be entitled to the same tax incentives availed in Andhra Pradesh.

KTR said the government is in the process of setting up the world’s largest incubating tech facility plus an incubation fund to promote and nurture young talent and workable ideas. Addressing the gathering at his first ITC industry round table on Friday, KTR said, a consortium comprising the International School of Business, IIIT-Hyderabad and the government were working out the modalities to launch the first phase of the proposed facility in the next six months.

“While we (Hyderabad) do $8 billion software exports, Bangalore does nearly thrice at $21 billion. What we lack is the technology ecosystem and skilled graduates,” he said.

Though the city boasts of 200 plus professional and engineering colleges, the graduates they churn out are not readily employable for lack of skills. “To address the problem, we have come up with a concept, TASK, Telangana Academy of Skills & Knowledge that will bring together industry and academia. The industry consortium, as part of the CSR activity, will pick up a pool of graduates to build soft skills and other technical skills,” he said, adding that city-based Cyient Ltd, promoted by BVR Mohan Reddy, had agreed to train 1,000 such graduates.

In order to project the city as a leisure and lifestyle destination, Rao said, the government has floated a ‘52 weeks, 52 events’ concept to create a calendar of events. “We are talking to an event management company to host south India’s film festival here,” he said, adding that the city was keen on hosting its own sunburn festival.

The upcoming ITIR project is expected to bring in Rs 2.18 lakh crore investments and provide direct employment to 15 lakh people and indirect employment to 35 lakh over the next 20 years.

Corpus Fund for IT Entrepreneurship

The government of Telangana will set up a corpus fund to promote IT entrepreneurship in the city, said Pradeep Chandra, special chief secretary in the department of industries. “We are willing to set up the fund, given there’s a matching contribution from the private sector. If angel investors, private equity players and venture capitalists come forward, the proposed corpus can be substantial. There’s money available and prospective companies will have to go through a rigid screening process to avail the fund,” he said.

With Inputs From New Indian Express