Telangana is fastest-growing state in country, thanks to KCR’s schemes: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Telangana has emerged as the fastest-growing state in the country, thanks to the welfare schemes and development initiatives of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Finance and Health Minister Harish Rao has said.

Harish Rao held the 37th review meeting of the state-level bankers committee at T-Hub along with Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy and Telangana’s senior government officials on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister claimed that Telangana's contribution to the country's GDP increased from 4.1 percent in 2014-15 to 4.8 percent in 2022-23. Harish Rao expressed happiness on setting the annual loan target at Rs. 2,42,775 crore with a spike of 13.42 percent from last year's Rs 2.14 lakh crore and welcomed the decision to allocate 60.85 percent (amounting to Rs 1,22,762.59 crore) share of priority sector funds to the agriculture sector.

Harish Rao also said that the agriculture and allied sectors had recorded significant growth due to the government initiatives such as Rythu Bandhu, 24-hour free electricity, Mission Kakatiya, Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) and other irrigation projects. This was also made possible due to encouragement to the agriculture allied sectors, fisheries, distribution of sheep, among others. Stating that GSVA had increased from 16.3 percent in 2014-15 to 18.8 percent by 2022-23, Rao said that Telangana ranked second in the country in supplying maximum grain to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) with an increase in crop production.

Harish Rao, on this occasion, directed the officials to extend loan opportunities to the government sectors such as education, medicine, housing, agriculture and agriculture-related sectors and grant loans to all the eligible seekers across sectors including dairy and fisheries. He also suggested to the officials to create awareness among the people and coordinate with the bankers to increase the number of beneficiaries for loans.

Claiming that Telangana was in the best position in terms of deposits, the minister asked the bankers to reinstate in rural areas the bank branches that have been moved to urban areas and provide services to the poor people in villages to increase the deposits further. The minister meanwhile hailed the Chief Minister, saying that the government, under the latter's leadership, was granting loans to the cultivation of oil farms. He also observed that the industrial sector in the state had registered significant growth due to the business positive policies of the government. He said that the government's ambitious TS IPass scheme attracted investments of Rs 20,237 crores through 2,518 new industries in January 2022-23 and created job opportunities for 72,908 people.

Speaking on the MSMEs, the finance and health minister claimed that a large number of employment opportunities were generated by MSMEs in the state. He asked bankers to grant loans of Rs 54,672 crores to MSME industries. Harish Rao felt that banks should stand by small traders by providing loans. He said that the state government was providing subsidies of up to 60-90 percent for the development of different communities.

Finance Department Special Principal Secretary Rama Krishna Rao, SLBC Convenor Debashish Mitra, Agriculture Special Commissioner Hanumanth K, NABARD CGM Chintala Sushila, RBI Regional Director Nikhila, DFS Additional Commissioner Tangirala and representatives of all banks, farmers and small industry associations participated in the review meeting.