IT and Industries Minister KTR participated in a line of meetings and sessions at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit 2019 in New Delhi today.
At the summit, Minister KTR participated in a panel discussion on the ‘Union of States’. The other panelists who shared their insights during the session were Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Kamal Nath, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and Minister for Industries, Commerce and Information Technology, Andhra Pradesh, Mekapati Goutham Reddy.
The panelists discussed the dynamics between the center and the states and cities as the engines of growth.
Talking about the Centre and state relations, Minister KTR stated that a few items could be transferred from the concurrent list to the state list to boost the performance of the states. Minister KTR said, “Stronger states will lead to a stronger country.”
During the session, Minister KTR highlighted the Telangana government’s industrial policy, TS-iPASS, a single-window clearance initiative for investors. He also stated that Telangana is consistently ranked top in Ease of Doing Business in the country.
When asked about urbanization, Minister KTR stated that people move to cities for better livelihood, health care, and education opportunities. “India is run by the urban pockets which are the prime contributors to the GDP or the GSDP,” he added.
Speaking about the decentralization at the state level, Minister KTR stated that Telangana began with 10 districts and presently has 33 districts, 3400 village panchayats, and new revenue divisions. He also stated that each of these units sees development through a planned budget.
Minister stated that the Government of India has to be an enabler instead of coming in the way of states which receive capital from various lending agencies.
Minister also stated that failing to resolve this problem will affect the urban infra and also the GDP.
