Telangana is also a part of India. The Centre is obligated to realise the potential of each state, the minister said. Sridhar Babu termed Dakshin Dialogues a step in promoting 'next-age' governance among the southern 'sister states.'
Published Oct 07, 2024 | 12:00 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 07, 2024 | 6:09 PM
Telangana IT Minister D Sridhar Babu speaking at Dakshin Dialogues 2024
Hinting at the Union government’s discriminatory attitude towards South Indian states, Telangana’s Minister for Information Technology Sridhar Babu called for the Centre’s support for the South to realise its potential.
Speaking at the third edition of Dakshin Dialogues, South First‘s thought conclave, in Hyderabad on Saturday, 5 October, the minister expressed hope that the Centre’s attitude towards southern states would change.
“Telangana is also a part of India. The Centre is obligated to realise the potential of each state. It needs to support Telangana in its tech specialty,” Babu said.
The minister said Telangana needed the Union government’s support to realise its vision. “We already have partner companies, including GPU giant Nvidia, ready to support the setting up of an AI city,” he stated.
“Many states are looking for investors in the semiconductors sector. Even Telangana has an investor ready,” Sridhar explained. “However, part of the anguish and agony of Telangana is that despite being part and parcel of the country, the Centre is favouring another state,” he said, referring to Kaynes Semicon.
In October 2023, Kaynes signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government to set up a semiconductor unit near Kongara Kalan, Ranga Reddy district. It put the MoU on hold in March 2024 before subsequently deciding to set up the unit in Sanand, Gujarat.
“The AI city is an ambitious project,” Babu explained. “We’re looking at developing over 200 acres and it’s capital intensive requiring millions of dollars,” he further said.
Noting that the Telangana government was looking at a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to achieve its goals, he informed that startups would receive incentives to set up shop in the AI city.
“We are also looking at setting up a School for Excellence in AI,” Babu announced.
The minister said there was a friendly competition among southern states. “As my counterparts in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu will tell you, we are trying to outdo each other in tech,” he continued.
Referring to the Karnataka IT Minister, he said: “Priyank Kharge and I keep discussing how Hyderabad and Bengaluru need to connect. One way we can envision is a Hyderabad-Bengaluru corridor.”
“I’d joke with him (Priyank Kharge) that Bengaluru beats Hyderabad in IT exports, but we’d lead in AI,” he said. He noted that excelling in AI will need research within Telangana.
“We have always made the dough for other bread-makers. It’s high time we made our dough, baked our bread, and sold it too,” he opined, emphasising the need to capture the brainpower available locally.
Babu termed Dakshin Dialogues a step in promoting ‘next-age’ governance among the southern ‘sister states.’ Noting that South India excels in curating technology for the future, he expressed pride in their global achievements.
Dakshin Dialogues 2024 was presented by KarPing in association with Governments of Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka along with Ichor Biologics, Start up Karnataka, ELCOT, K-Tech with IIIT-Hyderabad as knowledge partners.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
