Act smart! Don’t bank only on agri, CM prods farmers

Hyderabad: Stating that Agriculture is the culture of many in the State, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday advised the farming community not to involve their entire family in agriculture and asked them to restrict one or two in the family for farming and remaining to pursue entrepreneurship in agriculture-allied and other sectors.

The Chief Minister made these comments while launching the new MSME Policy here at Shilpakala Vedika on Wednesday. The Chief Minister said that the government provided free power to farmers, also provided a loan waiver of Rs 18,000 crore but still farmers' problems were not solved. It is because all the members in the family are dependent on agricultural income which is not sufficient. “If the entire family is dependent on agriculture, it will not help. Go for agriculture-allied sectors. The farmers in Krishna and Godavari sent their children to study IT and today they are stable. The land prices shooting up now is only because of these IT experts purchasing these lands. Hence only a few members in the family should depend on agriculture, and the remaining persons should study and develop their careers,” said Revanth Reddy.

The CM said that the country was a closed economy before PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. When the Indian economy was closed, there was no industrial revolution. PV liberalised the policy regime and industries were brought. The then Finance minister Manmohan Singh's role was also important, which made us compete with international companies.

Stating that no government could achieve progress without policy, Revanth Reddy said that to attract investments and to encourage MSMEs, the government was providing all benefits. The past government promised incentives but did not fulfil them. The Congress government would do so, he said.

The Chief Minister said that the IT revolution started by N Chandrababu Naidu between 1999 to 2004 and was continued by YS Rajasekhara Reddy, hence IT companies have come to Hyderabad. Former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru provided institutes like IDPL here, which has ensured Pharma companies come to the State. Today, two out of four vaccines for COVID have come from Telangana. Similarly, Defence institutions, BHEL and others have also helped in strengthening the MSMEs, he said.

The CM assured that all the good works whoever had done will be continued and if there were any issues that affect the interest of the state, they would be discontinued. He said that students were coming out with degrees but they are not ready for jobs and there is a gap. To address the gap, the government with the help of Tata Institute set up a Skill development centre. To make the students job ready, the government was coming up with Young India University, which is headed by Anand Mahindra. The CM said that post COVID, the investors were looking at countries other than China. “This is the word which the investors worldwide said. We can compete and go forward beyond China. The government has aspirations to take the state on development path. The doors of government are always open, you can come at any time,” said the CM to entrepreneurs.