War hits hard on exports from Telangana

Hyderabad: Possibility of negative impact of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine on Telangana is not ruled out. The reason is that the exports from Telangana to Russia is the third highest after US and China. The exports include pharma products, IT, food processing, and engineering goods.

This fear is being expressed in official circles, which feel that if the war does not end soon, it could affect exports to Russia. According to the Socio Economic Outlook – 2022, exports from Telangana to the US was 26 per cent followed by China at 6.78 per cent and 4.01 per cent to Russia.

"Exports to the Russia have increased due to various pro-active measures taken by the State government," the report said. The government is keeping its fingers crossed and is looking forward to maintaining a steady growth in exports to Russia.

"Telangana exported merchandise worth Rs 64,539.42 crore. Pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals constituted around 65 per cent of the total exports," the survey outlook said that there is a global demand for the goods produced by Telangana.

According to the 2020 Export Preparedness Index compiled by the NITI Aayog, Telangana's exports command high value across 80 different countries.

Hence, Telangana has the fourth highest international market penetration among all states in India.

Roughly five districts Medchal- Malkajgiri, Hyderabad, Sangareddy, Ranga Reddy and Medak account for over 75 per cent of all exports from the state. Other major contributors include Nalgonda, Khammam and Yadadri- Bhuvanagiri districts. With the launch of policies like One-District- One-Product, the Government has directed its focus on expanding the export potential of all 33 districts of Telangana.

The Export Preparedness Index also suggests that there is tremendous potential for improvement in terms of conducting more investor summits for export-oriented industries, improving internet facilities, improving access to finance, and establishing more research-focused institutes.

However, Telangana's performance is largely affected by underwhelming performance on the business ecosystem, especially in transport connectivity and financial indices. These are critical policy areas that need to be addressed to propel Telangana's export growth, the report explained.

The Government envisages to make the state an export hub in food processing and textiles. The focus is on further strengthen the industry sector by creating new industrial parks across the state, the report added.