KTR says he has no competition with Bengaluru, ‘Hyderabad's infrastructure much better’

KTR said he would like to take the issue of cryptocurrency with the government and play the role of an advocate partner of the crypto industry.

Telangana IT minister KTR said he has no competition with Bengaluru and that Hyderabad's infrastructure is any case much better than Bengaluru. Talking at a podcast the minister said, "As a minister of IT which I have been for the last 8 years, what I have realised is when I go and meet a prospective investor, he is actually weighing between Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan etc. When he chooses India, then he starts thinking about where to go in India."

KTR said his competition is not with Bengaluru. (HT PHOTO.)

"What I tell them is that your experience in India will depend on the gateway you choose to enter the country. If you enter India from Uttar Pradesh, you will get a very different experience. If you choose Hyderabad, your experience will be very different. It's 28 different experiences. I just tell them to choose their gateway wisely," KTR said.

Listing out the pluses of Hyderabad, the minister said one-third of global vaccines are produced in Hyderabad; 40% of India's pharmaceuticals are in Hyderabad and the largest number of US FDA-approved manufacturing facilities in pharma in any state in any country across the world are in Hyderabad. "We tell them that Hyderabad is the city where the North meets the South. Biology marries technology...Hyderabad is that comprehensive, brilliant location where biryani meets paratha...Our infrastructure is much better than Bengaluru, let me tell you," KTR said.

The comments came after early this year KTR triggered a massive Hydebead versus Bengaluru debate by inviting a Bengaluru startup owner to shift to Hyderabad after he complained of the lack of infrastructure. The debate snowballed into a political controversy with Karnataka chief minister BS Bommai commenting on the issue.

In the recent interview, KTR recounted an incident how he met Amazon representatives on a flight eight years ago. "They said they were facing some tax issues in Karnataka. We told them to come to Hyderabad. The meeting took place the very next week. And they agreed to have a fulfilment centre in Hyderabad. Today, after that simple conversation on the flight, we have Asia's largest fulfilment centre, Amazon's largest campus in the world..it all depends on how the government looks at you. I look at my investors as my partners, not as mere investors," KTR said.

On the issue of cryptocurrency, KTR said he would like to take up the issue with the government of India to understand what their actual concern is. "We want to play the role o a sort-of advocate partner for the crypto industry because on one hand the government is saying there is not much clarity on how to go about handling crypto. But at the same time, the government went ahead and put a tax on crypto. So it is a bit of an ambivalent stand. I would like to have a talk with the crypto guys who are migrating to Dubai," KTR said.