Telangana maintained growth momentum even in dark times

Hyderabad: Telangana is the only State (Oke Oka Rashtram) to achieve many firsts despite discrimination by the Centre, said State Finance Minister T Harish Rao.

"It is the only State whose contribution to the national economy has grown by almost one per cent. What Telangana does today is followed by the country tomorrow and this is the truth," claimed the Minister.

Telangana, he said, has become a frontrunner in all sectors in a very short period and the achievements on various fronts were a testament to the claims.

According to him, Telangana is the only State to have adopted zero-tolerance approach towards corruption. "The proof is that the monetary benefits of every scheme are directly credited into the bank accounts of beneficiaries," he said.

Again it is the only State whose Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth has consistently been higher than the national GDP since 2015-16. At the national level, during 2020-21, there was a negative growth rate of (-) 1.4 % due to the adverse impact of Corona. Many States have also registered negative growth rates. But Telangana clocked positive growth rate of (+) 2.2%. Telangana stood first with an average annual growth of 11.7 per cent in current prices during the period 2015-16 to 2020-21.

As per the Advance Estimates, Telangana continued to maintain higher growth in the GSDP in 2021-22 too at 11.2 per cent at constant prices as compared with the national GDP growth of 8.9 per cent. With such a sterling performance, the contribution of Telangana to the country's GDP improved from 4.06 per cent in 2014-15 to 4.97 per cent in 2021-22, the Minister informed.

Harish said that industry and services sectors also recorded impressive growth over 2020-21. The secondary sector, consisting of manufacturing and construction, recorded 21.5 per cent growth in current prices over contraction of 0.3 per cent in 2020-21. The services sector too improved its performance significantly to 18.3 per cent in the current year over the previous year's growth of 0.9 per cent.

In terms of growth of per capita income, a very broad measure of economic development and average living standards, Telangana's performance has been spectacular. In 2014-15, the per capita income of Telangana at Rs 1,24,104 was higher than the national per capita income of Rs 86,647 by 1.43 times. By 2021-22, the per capita income of the State at Rs 2,78,833 exceeded the national average of Rs 1,49,848 by 1.86 times.

"The per capita income of Telangana is increasing at a faster pace day-by-day. He said that Telangana recorded a higher growth of 18.8 per cent in per capita income in 2021-22 as compared with the national growth of 18.1 per cent. In 2020-21, Telangana is a top-ranking State in per capita income among all the southern States. This is the achievement of the people of Telangana. It is evident that Telangana maintained its growth momentum even in adverse situations and that it has emerged as an economic powerhouse and as one of the fastest growing States in the country within a short period," he added.