Grow beyond Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has suggested to the Telangana government to grow beyond Hyderabad instead of concentrating in and around the capital city. The equity should spread across the state,” he said.

Jaitley was addressing a gathering at the inaugural ceremony of Symbiosis International University (SIU)’s 40-acre campus at Mamidipalli village in Kothur mandal of Mahbubnagar district on Sunday.

Noting that Telangana was born out of struggle and aspiration, Jaitley said, "Obviously Telangana has some advantages. Hyderabad itself is a big advantage.

Within a short time its ability to catch up is going to be there. I have no doubt Telangana would be way ahead of national average as far as income and earnings are concerned and its ability to push up India's growth because of its natural advantages."

The Indian agriculture sector, which accounts for around 16 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has failed to give subsistence to farmers, the Finance Minister said.

The agriculture sector in India hardly gives any subsistence to the farmers. They are already underemployed and this leads to large-scale inequalities. Agriculturalists form 55 per cent of the country’s population. We cannot afford to have them underemployed,” he said.

On the manufacturing front, our aspiration is that it should be about 25 per cent of our economy. India lost three manufacturing revolutions, with the last one being the low-cost manufacturing revolution.

It seems that a fourth industrial revolution is there for India to catch up now. The hard reality, however, is that India is a services economy and services do contribute around 60 per cent to its GDP,” Jaitley said.

Emphasising that education plays a key role in the creation of human resources, the Finance Minister said the promotion of higher education by the private sector was unimaginable about 25 years ago. “Institutions at school level can come up, but at higher educational level was never anticipated," he said.

MLA supporters disrupt inauguration The inauguration of SIU campus was disrupted for a brief period by the supporters of Shadnagar MLA Anjaiah Yadav, who was not invited onto the stage.

Telangana Information Technology and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao, however, avoided an impending awkward situation. The minister quickly went down the stage, pacified the slogan-shouting crowd, and brought the situation under control.

After inaugurating the Hyderabad chapter of Symbiosis Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SCEI), which has been set up to promote entrepreneurship and foster innovation among the youth of India, KTR said the Telangana government believed in the concept of ‘Innovate, incubate and incorporate’. “

The right ecosystem is being created in our Startup State,” he said. Headquartered in Pune, SIU has its off-campus centres in Nashik, Noida and Bengaluru, with Hyderabad being the latest addition.

The Hyderabad off-campus centre houses academic buildings, library, hostels for students, residential facilities for teaching and non-teaching staff, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,000, recreation and wellness centre and sports facilities.