Minister felicitated for his contributions to the state.
Bureau Report
NEW YORK: The Indian National Overseas Congress (I) along with members of the New Jersey Telugu community hosted a reception to honor the Information and Technology (IT) Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, at the Royal Albert’s Palace in Fords, NJ, on Jan 19th. The event was attended by about 150 guests and focused on discussion around IT partnership between the United States and India.
The minister was received by INOC (I) Senior Vice President Shudh Jasuja, and local community leaders, including Atma Singh, Ram Gadula, Raj Dichpally, Venkatesh Mutyala and Manju Bhargava. The event started with singing of the US and Indian national anthems. A moment of silence was observed in honor of Indian soldiers killed on the Line of Control and the recent death of a rape victim in India.
Lakshmaiah is visiting the United States to attend President Barack Obama ‘s inauguration reception on Monday, in Washington, DC.
In his speech, Lakshmaiah said that Andhra Pradesh continues to be a favorite destination for industrial investment and the state is consistently growing and received investments to the tune of Rs. 29,995 crores during 2010-2011 fiscal year, recording a growth of 67% compared to previous years.
Andhra Pradesh is the fourth largest exporter contributing over 15% of the nation’s IT exports. IT has generated more than 300,000 jobs through direct employment and another 1.2 million jobs supporting the IT industry. As a result the government gives prime importance to the growth of IT sector and has been the key segment for employment generation in the state.
He said some of the initiatives taken by the government to promote IT sector include: ITIR in an area of 202 sq. km in and around Hyderabad; Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (eCity) in 900 acres; first ever dedicated gaming, animation and media and entertainment city in 30 acres (first of its kind in the country); optical fiber broadband connectivity to rural gram panchayats and providing services through several e-governance tools/utilities to citizens.
The guests had an opportunity to ask questions after the minister’s speech. To a question that due to Telangana issue, has the state been losing investments gradually, Lakshmaiah disagreed and said, on the contrary several new companies have been setup and existing companies have been expanding and this speaks for the 67% growth the state recorded.
Another question was raised about the state deficit caused due to the government giving away many subsidies via various programs. The minister stated that the state government budget deficit is within allowable FRBM limits during the entire period of Congress ruling since 2004. However, this was not the case earlier, as no physical discipline was maintained before, he said.
The event was organized by Ram Gadula and Raj Dichpally, and sponsored by Global Nest, Inc, and Symbioun Technologies, Inc.