Centre should extend help to performing States like Telangana: KTR

Hyderabad: India would have achieved the targeted $ 5 trillion economy by 2022 if all Indian States grew at the same pace as Telangana. Despite being a performing State, the Centre was actually punishing Telangana by not supporting it in its growth, said IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao.

Speaking at the annual CII event on 'Beyond India@75 – Accelerating Telangana Growth Momentum – Resilience through Competitiveness, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, ' he said the Hyderabad PharmaCity, which will be the largest pharma manufacturing cluster in the world, did not receive any support from the Centre. The State has also been denied a bulk drugs manufacturing cluster, other manufacturing clusters, industrial corridors and others. Even though a special incentive was promised in the AP Reorganisation Act, nothing has been given to both the Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

While India was a democratic country, not all States are treated equally. Each State is diverse and that diversity should be respected. Political affiliations should not define if a State will be supported or not, Rama Rao said urging the Centre to offer incentives to performing States. "Who are we to tell people what to eat, what to wear," he said.

While initiatives like 'Make in India' are good, they have not progressed much beyond slogans. The Centre should empower performing States and incentivise such States, the Minister said. Many still feel that importing from China works out cheaper rather than making locally despite the import costs, distance and other factors. " We need to ask ourselves why making in China is cheaper, ask about our duty structures, about the road blocks to achieving scale and efficiency," Rama Rao said.

Telangana has set a target of taking the lifesciences sector value to about $250 billion, morebtgav tripling from the current $80 billion, by 2030. The State now makes 35 per cent (about nine billion doses) of all vaccines made globally. This number will increase to 50 billion (14 billion doses) by end of next year. Telangana also has 214 USFDA approved manufacturing facilities, the highest in the world, Rama Rao said adding that Telangana is expanding the Genome Valley and Medical Devices Park further. The PharmaCity has potential to create employment opportunities to five lakh people.