Hyderabad: Expressing his happiness at the state topping the Ease of Doing Business rankings, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday said that Telangana has become a model for all other states in the country in several fields in a short span of just two years.
Speaking to the media here, Mr Rama Rao said that at the time it was formed, many people expressed doubts that Telangana would be able to develop and investors would find it attractive.
“However, with the visionary guidance and reforms taken up by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Telangana is now No. 1 in EoDB rankings in just nine months,” Mr Rama Rao said.
He pointed out that the state has received Rs 44,791 crore investments and 2,550 industries have been set up in various sectors creating 1,60,894 new jobs.
Expressing satisfaction that TS is sharing the No. 1 EoDB ranking with AP, Mr Rama Rao said: “If TS has to share any rank or award with any other state in the country, I would definitely prefer it to be AP. After all, we are Telugu people, we had lived together for decades.”
The minister said TS scored 98.78 per cent points in the EoDB criteria and the Central government approved 324 of its reform initiatives of the 340. He added that 12 reforms were not applicable to the state and four initiatives of TS were not approved.
Mr Rama Rao said that of the 340 initiatives, TS stood No. 1 in 324. He said in the last nine months, the TS government has conducted 60 meetings on industries, 121 circulars were issued, 26 Acts were amended in addition to 58 new GOs issued, 19 portals created and 113 online services started.
The minister said that the labour department has launched 22, the highest number of services. He said that TS achieved No. 1 position in EoDB because all the officials of 22 departments worked in tandem.
He said that the TS iPASS was a one-stop shop for information, online applications, payment of fees and tracking and issue of approvals introduced by the state government has received appreciations from several countries across the world.
He said that the CM’s aim was “minimum government and maximum governance”. Referring to criticism by the Opposition, Mr Rama Rao said, “We welcome constructive criticism, if the allegations are baseless, we leave it to their wisdom”.
