Hon’ble Chief Minister Sri K Chandrashekar Rao congratulated the state IT Department for the impressive growth in IT Exports from the state. Telangana’s Exports grew at 17.93% compared to the National Average of 8.09% and the Rest of the Nation’s Average of 6.92%. CM was happy to see the share of the Telangana’s exports in India went up from 10.6% to 11.6% and the share of Telangana in this year’s growth in National Exports was a remarkable 23.5%. “This clearly indicates that Telangana is poised to the be preferred destination for IT investments in the future”, he said. The Chief Minister also directed the IT department to ensure that all measures and precautions be taken to ensure that the IT Industry functions smoothly, keeping in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister for IT, Sri K. T. Rama Rao and the Principal Secretary, Sri Jayesh Ranjan IAS met the Chief Minister, Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao and shared with him the following IT Exports and Employment data obtained for the financial year 2019 – 20.

Salient points:

1. Telangana’s Exports grew at 17.93% compared to the National Average of 8.09% and the Rest of the Nation’s Average of 6.92%. In other words, Telangana growth is more than double the National Average or more than two and a half times the Rest of the Nation.
2. Similarly Telangana’s Employment grew at 7.2% compared to the National Average of 4.93% or the Rest of the Nation’s Average of 4.59%. Telangana growth rate in employment is about 50% more than the rest of the country.
3. Telangana share of Exports in India grew from 10.61% in (2018-19) to 11.58% (2019-20)
4. Telangana share of Employment in India grew from 13.06% in (2018-19) to 13.34% (2019-20)
5. The Overall share of Telangana in the Indian Export Growth for 2019-20 is 23.53%
6. The overall share of Telangana in the Indian Employment Growth for 2019-20 is 19.07%.

The Minister for IT explained the CM that despite the onset of the COVID-19 during the last quarter of the financial year 2019 – 2020 (Jan 2020 – March 2020), the export growth from Telangana managed to record a phenomenal 17.93% growth for the full financial year. And this is more than double that of the National growth.

The Principal Secretary mentioned to the Chief Minister that an effort is undertaken by the IT Industry in Hyderabad under the IT4TS campaign. Several employees contributed their 1 day, 2-day salaries and with companies matching 1X, 2X. The proceeds were used to procure high-end medical infrastructure for testing COVID-19 and even other viruses subsequently in the Government hospitals. Several companies were involved in contributing towards the PPEs, Ventilators, and other relief efforts among other things. The IT fraternity in Hyderabad was able to raise over Rs. 70 Cr collectively towards the fight against COVID-19.

During the 2019 – 20 financial year, several marquee investments have taken place in Hyderabad, including the inauguration of Amazon’s world’s largest facility at 3 Million sft and Micron’s largest R&D centre globally. Tech Mahindra and CYIENT have chosen to open their centers in the tier-2 location of Warangal. The government is also promoting the dispersion of the IT around the city with several MNCs showing interest in the Eastern part of the city. It can also be noted that the commercial space absorption in the city of Hyderabad during the first two quarters for the year 2019-20 topped all Metros in India in growth as well as in absolute terms.

The IT Minister said that the Hyderabad IT ecosystem has the agility and the resilience to overcome the effects of COVID-19. He pointed out that several investors are actively engaged in discussions with the department and very soon, there will be some announcements in this regard. The department will release the progress report on the 1st of June depicting all the achievements during the year 2019-20. This will be the Sixth year in a row that the department has released the progress report without fail.