With the information technology exports from Telangana likely to grow at seven per cent to cross Rs 1.40 lakh crore during 2020-21, the State’s IT minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday said the growth rate would have been much higher if the Centre had not scrapped the ITIR project.

The Minister said he was delighted that projected Telangana IT export numbers show terrific growth, at a much higher rate than national averageRama Rao tweeted that had the NDA government not scrapped Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR), much higher employment/growth would’ve been possible.

KTR, as the Minister is popularly known, said despite numerous personal requests to the Prime Minister and Union IT Minister, the ITIR has been scrapped for reasons unknown.

He said the Telangana government had submitted Detailed Project Report  and IT Cluster details but unfortunately neither ITIR has been taken forward nor has there been an alternate progressive policy. KTR was reacting to reports that IT from Telangana is expected to grow over 7 per cent in 2020-21. According to Nasscom, the national growth rate during the same period is estimated to be just 1.9 per cent.KTR recalled that in 2013-14, the IT exports from then undivided Andhra Pradesh were only Rs 57,258 crore.

The State had clocked over Rs 1.28 lakh crore IT exports during 2019-20, a growth of nearly 18 per cent over the previous year.The state recorded IT exports of Rs 1,28,807 crore, an increase of 17.93 per cent over 2018-19. The growth rate was more than double the national average of 8.09 per cent and more than two-and-a-half times the rest of the nation’s average of 6.92%.

The slump in IT exports during the current fiscal is attributed to Covid-19 pandemic.