Babu also said the government is also going to initiate reverse brain drain and appeal Telangana NRIs to return and start enterprises in their native places.
The Cyient multinational technological company in Warangal. (Telangana government)
In a bid to boost IT sector infrastructure on the lines of Hyderabad, Telangana IT Minister D Sridhar Babu on Thursday, 4 January, said the state government was in the process of picking tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
The move is expected to curtail unemployment as well as migration to the state capital.
Speaking to South First on the sidelines of an event at Gandhi Bhavan, he added that the state government would also initiate a reverse brain drain of sorts — a situation in which a state would enjoy a larger number of skilled people returning than going out — at a massive scale.
During South First‘s visits to the districts of Telangana in the run-up to the 2023 Telangana Assembly, several youngsters with a software background pointed out the need for tech infrastructure in their respective districts to avoid travelling to Hyderabad and other tier-1 cities.
Over the years, the city of Warangal has developed into a major IT hub apart from Hyderabad, with industry giants like Cyient, Tech Mahindra, and Genpact already present there.
Quadrant Technologies also opened its office in Warangal in October last year, with a capacity for to hire 500 IT professionals.
An IT tower with a reported job capability of over 1,000 jobs was also opened in the Siddipet district.
Such towers were also inaugurated in Karimnagar, Nalgonda, and Suryapet districts. While Warangal is a nearly three-hour journey from Hyderabad, it takes around two hours to reach Siddipet.
However, it is in the distant districts such as Kamareddy, Sircilla, and Pedappalle, that the youth voiced their concerns over the unavailability of jobs near their native places.
Sridhar Babu said, “We will be steadfast in our policies so that we can cut down the unemployment ratio in the state. Our policies will concentrate on Hyderabad as well as tier-2 and tier-3 cities to bring down unemployment.”
Babu, a five-time MLA from the Manthani Assembly constituency, added: “We (the Telangana government) are in the process of identifying the two-tier and three-tier cities. These cities are mostly known to everyone, according to urban planning, so what we need is to improve their infrastructure. We are trying that.”
Babu said the fibre-optic cables for internet connections had been laid down in most parts of the state.
“We will be checking the bandwidth of the internet and try to rope in entrepreneurs to invest in our state. What we need to create is confidence among the people as well as investors. We are seeking everybody’s opinions,” said the minister, adding that suggestions from the Opposition parties were also welcome.
“They claim that the state’s development is the first priority for them,” he said.
Sridhar Babu said that the IT policy shift to tier-2 and tier-3 cities would “definitely” reduce migration to Hyderabad.
“Apart from unemployment, the IT boost in such cities is going to end migration to Hyderabad. In every place, people look forward to seeking employment near their village or hometown. We are definitely going to provide some opportunity and we will encourage many entrepreneurs to invest in these cities,” the IT minister said.
Babu also noted that the Congress government was also eyeing a reversal of the brain drain of Telugu people who have settled overseas.
“We are going to appeal to people who are from Telangana and have settled abroad to return to India and start their own enterprises in and around their villages or hometowns, including Hyderabad. All of this is going to happen at a very, very large pace,” said the minister.
Along with Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Sridhar Babu will be headed to the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos in Switzerland between 15 and 19 January.
“At the Davos WEF, our primary aim will be to rope major entrepreneurs to create jobs in Telangana and emphasise setting up carbon-free industries,” Babu said.
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