Telangana dream comes true as investments pour in

Hyderabad: Proving sceptics who predicted doom for Telangana post bifurcation wrong, the youngest State of India led from the front in investment and economic growth in the last three years, outsmarting all other states and exceeding national growth averages by miles.

The total investment that flowed into Telangana went up by a whopping 68.5 per cent in the last three financial years from FY15 to FY17, which is more than three times of the national average investment growth rate of 20.8 per cent, according to a study by the national industry body, Assocham.

On the economic (GDP) front too, Telangana outgrew the country’s GDP. The state clocked 8.2 per cent growth in FY15 and 8.5 per cent upswing in FY17 against the national GDP growth of 7.2 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively. However, in FY16, the GSDP growth was at 7.4 per cent, a tad lower than 7.9 per cent at national level.

The Assocham report, which put Telangana on investment pedestal among its southern peers and beyond, revealed that the newly-created state also registered the country’s highest investment growth rate of 79 per cent in last six years from a low of Rs 3.3 lakh crore in total outstanding investments in FY12 to Rs 5.9 lakh crore in FY17. Telangana also clocked higher GSDP growth than national average during this period.

“A slew of pro-industry initiatives taken up by the pro-active Telangana government has paid rich dividends what with the State surpassing national average growth rate of about 27 per cent in terms of attracting live investments between FY12 and FY17,” D S Rawat, secretary general, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), told the media here after releasing the study report titled ‘Telangana: Analysis of economic growth & investment performance’.

According to the study, Telangana also outperformed all the southern states, including Andhra Pradesh in terms of attracting investments. Against the growth rate of 79 per cent in Telangana, the outstanding investment went up by 50.8 per cent in AP, 18.9 per cent in Kerala and 11.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu, while Karnataka registered a de-growth of 0.2 per cent during the same six-year period. “The youngest State of India accounted for 3.3 per cent share in total investments worth over Rs 177 lakh crore attracted by top industrial states across India as of FY17,” highlighted the study prepared by Assocham’s Economic Research Bureau.

In terms of year-on-year growth in investments, the state has registered considerable improvement from 0.6 per cent in FY13 and 5.6 per cent in FY14 to about 24 per cent in FY15, over 22 per cent in FY16 and about 12 per cent in FY17, he added. Sector-wise, irrigation takes the lion share with Rs 1.64 lakh crore or 28 per cent of the total investments as of FY17, followed by service sector (excluding financial services) with Rs 1.45 lakh crore or 25 per cent. Power (Rs 1.09 lakh crore, 18.5 per cent) and manufacturing (Rs 66,000 crore, 11 per cent) are the other major sectors.

As for the implementation, 370 projects with investments worth about Rs 4 lakh crore of the total investments attracted by Telangana, are under different stages of implementation. The State has also registered significant improvement in this regard as the under-implementation rate of projects has declined from over 78 pc in FY16 to 66 per cent in FY17 while nationwide, it has remained constant at 54 pc for past two years. To accelerate the growth rates further, the T-government should focus on manufacturing, bio-tech and tourism sectors.