HYDERABAD: BRS State working president and IT & Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday said that if a leader like K Chandrasekhar Rao is at the helm, India will be a $15 trillion economy very soon.
Addressing the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) conference organised at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) in Kondapur, he also said that politicians focus more on elections and less on economic development.
Stressing the need to have an equal distribution of wealth among all, he said: “On one hand, India has some of the richest people in the world. On the other, we are a nation with a maximum number of poor people on the planet. Our Prime Minister says that the freebie culture is not good. Let me remind you all that we are still a third-world country.”
The minister added that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure that while the economy grows, the wealth should be distributed, the vulnerable are taken care of and development and welfare are going hand in hand.
“In Telangana, we have done exactly that. Our per capita in 2014 was Rs 1,24,000 and it increased to Rs 2,78,000 as of June last year, greater than the country’s average of Rs 1,49,000,” he said.
“Telangana government focuses on 3 Is — Innovation, Infrastructure and Inclusive growth, which together will take us to fourth I, that is India. Telangana’s industrial policy, TS-iPASS has attracted investments worth $47 billion in the past eight and a half years. The State focuses not just on industriousness but on sustainable growth as there has been a 7.7% increase in green cover,” he said.
“The biggest challenge in front of a country is not management of its wealth, but that of its people. India is the only country which has a lot of think force. The maiden age of 65 per cent of India’s think force is 35 years and that of 50 per cent of think force is 28 years. We are the youngest nation on this planet, but not using our human resources for its good,” he said.
“India has more resources and more human resources, but is still less developed than China and Japan. The GDP numbers by the sheer virtue of the size of our nation can be misleading. India is the fifth largest economy, but we are also at 142nd position when it comes to per capita income,” he added.