Niti Aayog VC holds Video Conference with chief secretaries of Centre & States

Hyderabad: Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Suman Bery held a Video Conference with Union Cabinet Secretary Dr Rajiv Gauba and Chief Secretaries of all States on district as a driver of economic development from New Delhi today.

During the Video Conference, Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, IAS, presented the State's perspective on planning with a special focus on Karimnagar district as a fulcrum of development. He said the State has achieved rapid progress during the last eight years since its formation, which is evident from the GSDP increasing from Rs 5.5 lakh crore in 2014 to Rs 11.58 crore last year. The Chief Secretary stated the State government has formulated a clear goal of creating new jobs in formal sector, rapid economic growth annually and to achieve a high GSDP growth.

The Chief Secretary highlighted that government departments typically work in a conventional approach focussing only on their departments' budgets, targets and so on. In Telangana, a new approach has commenced by asking the departments to prepare how each of them can contribute to enhancing GSDP, improving economy and creating new jobs.

The Chief Secretary informed that accordingly brainstorming sessions were held with all the line departments and new focus was laid on jobs and entrepreneurship, which will help in achieving rapid economic growth. Growth drivers were identified in every department. Thrust was laid on convergence with other departments.

Additional Collector (Local Bodies) of Karimnagar district Garima Agarwal gave a brief overview of the district economy and highlighted how State action plans are executed at district level. Development of Manair river front, increase in oil palm cultivation and Dalit Bandhu scheme were identified as the new catalysts of growth in the district. An IT tower was set up in the district as part of development of IT sector in tier2 cities.

Special Chief Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary (MAUD) Arvind Kumar, Special Chief Secretary (AH) Adhar Sinha, Principal Secretary (Industries) Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary Agriculture Raghunandan Rao, Secretary SCD Rahul Bojja, Secretary Tribal Welfare Christina Zongthu and other officials attended the video conference.