Hyderabad: IT Minister KT Rama Rao has yet again appealed to Union IT and Electronics Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to consider providing Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project or a scheme or an initiative similar to (ITIR) for Hyderabad.

In a letter to the Union Minister on Sunday, Rama Rao said, “Since it is now clear that the Union Government is not inclined to continue the ITIR scheme, a scheme or initiative in its place should be considered for cities like Hyderabad to continue flourishing and provide employment to youngsters.”

Hyderabad is one of those few cities, which serve as economic engines and contribute immensely to the country’s economy. It is therefore important that such cities should be rewarded by way of new policy initiatives and incentives, he said.

The youth of Telangana are eagerly waiting for new employment opportunities that could be created with the support of the Union Government in the IT Sector, he said adding “I make an earnest appeal on their behalf to use your good offices to announce an initiative on the lines of ITIR.”

Despite the corona pandemic, Telangana has come up with some promising news. Latest estimates indicate that the IT exports from Telangana are expected to grow over 7 percent to touch Rs 1.4 lakh crore (about $19.1 billion) for the financial year 2020-21. The national growth rate in the said period, according to NASSCOM, is estimated to be at about 1.9 percent at $150 billion.

Hyderabad saw a healthy 8.7 million sft of new office space creation during the year. In terms of the share of sectoral occupiers, the information technology (IT/ITeS) sector including data centers dominated with a major share, followed by banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing sectors, while other services and co-working sectors also contributed. “

We could attract several marquee companies such as Amazon Web Services, Goldman Sachs, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to Telangana during the past one year,” the Minister said.

The Telangana government has been aggressively encouraging emerging technologies like AI, Data Analytics, IoT, cybersecurity, Digital entertainment technologies (Animation, Gaming, VFX), Blockchain, Drones, etc. In addition to this, the proactive role of the State Government in encouraging product development, R&D, and skill development in these areas has encouraged many global and domestic IT companies to bring their technology development centers to Hyderabad, he pointed out.

“The ongoing pandemic has had a severe impact on several sectors across the globe, but the technology industry in Hyderabad faced minimum disruption in conducting its activities. This was achieved by a proactive partnership between the State Government and the industry,” Rama Rao said.

Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on multiple occasions, both personally and through official letters, to provide assistance to the ITIR project. “As the IT Minister for the State, I had also met you and requested you to release funds for the ITIR project,” KT Rama Rao reminded the Union Minister.

“Unfortunately there was no response from the Union Government on this important initiative. Valuable time was lost as the Telangana Government was pursuing the ITIR Project without any response from the Union Government,” he pointed out.