Know Your MLA: The techie political scion

Sircilla: Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR, is the working president of BRS and former minister, MLA from Sircilla. Born in Karimnagar on July 24, 1976, KTR is the son of K Chandrashekar Rao, the first Chief Minister of Telangana.

He created a record by winning as Sircilla MLA for the fifth time in a row. KTR came to India for the first time to participate in Telangana Movement in 2009 and won Sircilla bye-election with the smallest majority of 171 votes in 2010, with a majority of 56,000 in 2014, 89,000 in 2018, and with 29, 000 votes in the 2023 elections.

KTR ensured the development of Sircilla with his own vision, established a medical college, JNTU engineering college, a driving school with international standards and an Agriculture Polytechnic University.

By setting up an Apparel Park, as there are many weavers’ families in Sircilla, orders for Bathukamma sarees worth Rs 300 crore have been placed to support the weavers. The mid-manair project and Malakpet reservoir were completed in a speedy manner. No matter how busy he was working as the state party president, he used to attend any small event in the constituency and fill the cadre with enthusiasm.

After finishing his MBA, KTR worked in the US between 2001 and 2006. But his interest in the prevailing socio-economic condition in the region brought him back to where his heart belongs, politics.

He joined Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and worked under the leadership of his father to achieve statehood for Telangana. During this period, he travelled across the State and interacted with people to understand their problems and aspirations, which later helped in shaping his political career. He assumed the charge of a cabinet minister in the first Government of Telangana in June 2014.

KTR held key ministerial portfolios such as IT, MA&UD, Mining and Panchayat Raj in the Cabinet between 2014 and 2018. KTR worked steadily with a wide spectrum of industry and political leaders in India and abroad. As the Minister for IT, KTR has come up with a comprehensive plan to cater to the multi-dimensional requirements of the IT industry and has been backed by dedicated and competent officers and staff.

He successfully doubled the IT exports from Telangana in a span of five years. He created proactive and business-friendly Industrial, IT and Electronics policies, promoted entrepreneurship through creation of T-Hub, India's largest incubator for startups and generated skilled workers through Telangana Academy of Skill and Knowledge (TASK).

KTR created an exclusive start-up incubator for women entrepreneurs- We-Hub as well as India’s largest prototyping centre for electronics, electromechanical and mechanical startups-T-Works, Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC).

For speedy processing of various clearances required for setting up of industries at a single point based on self-certification, KTR initiated TS-iPASS (Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System) and Telangana State Building Permission Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-bPASS).

KTR received Audi-Ritz Inspirational Icon of the Year Award (Politics) for 2015, SKOCH Challenger Award in the Start-up India category for Telangana’s path-breaking initiative T-Hub, and SKOCH Best Performing IT Minister Award for the year 2020.