Information Technology and Panchayat Raj Minister K.T. Rama Rao has said that the aim of his government was to overtake Bengaluru in the software industry.
Noting that the ‘first mover’ advantage in the industry was lost to Bengaluru due to the failure of the previous governments, Mr. Rao said here that the present regime was focussed on making Hyderabad the number one destination of the country in the IT sector.
He said at a ‘meet-the-press’ programme organised by Press Club, Hyderabad, that a huge expansion of the IT sector was proposed in Hyderabad whose exports in 2014 were of the order of Rs. 57,000 crore, next only to Bengaluru.
The goal was to increase exports to Rs. 1.20 lakh crore in collaboration with major companies abroad. The government will also tap the potential of low cost and high value human resource available in Hyderabad by encouraging them to set up start-ups.
The Telangana government will start a technology incubator in a fortnight when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will spell out the incentives.
The Minister maintained that the biggest takeaway from his recent U.S. tour was that he had succeeded in building the confidence of the IT industry in Hyderabad as an emerging market. The government established direct contact with honchos in the Silicon Valley.
They agreed to participate in the IT hub to be set up in Hyderabad, which will also have start-ups. A separate zone for micro, small and medium enterprises will also be set up over seven acres at Gachibowli. Admitting that the spate of suicides by farmers was a matter of concern for the government, Mr. Rao said the problem could have been worse if farmers were not advised to restrict the cropped area.
In the wake of the new industrial policy to be formally launched on June 12, Mr. Rao said the government had asked the World Bank to take up a survey in the State on ‘ease of doing business’.
