Hyderabad,  Despite Covid-19 pandemic and its adverse impact on the economy, Telangana registered 26.14 per cent growth in information technology exports and added nearly 1.50 lakh new jobs during 2021-22, surpassing the expectations.

The state clocked IT/ITeS exports of Rs 1,83,569 crore during the year against Rs 1,45,522 crore in 2020-21. The growth in exports was 12.98 per cent during the previous year.

The employment in the IT/ITeS sector has also increased by 23.78 per cent during 2021-2022.

State Information Technology Minister K. T. Rama Rao said on Wednesday that 1,49,506 net new jobs were added in the IT/ ITeS sector to take the total number of employees to 7,78,121.

He said the performance of the state during the year was nothing short of stellar. The exports grew by 26.14 per cent against the national growth rate of 17.20 per cent estimated by NASSCOM.

While NASSCOM estimated that 4.50 lakh jobs will be created in the sector in the entire country during 2021-22, Telangana alone accounted for 33.3 per cent national employment growth.

"This impressive performance is despite the second wave of the pandemic and there were a lot of apprehensions of people losing jobs," he said.

With Telangana set to celebrate its formation day on June 2, he pointed out that when the state was born in 2014, the IT exports were Rs 57,258 crore and total jobs in the sector were A3,23,397.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, pointed out that since the formation of the new state, Telangana achieved a CAGR of 15.67 in exports. "We have grown by more than 300 per cent from Rs.57,258 crore to now Rs 1,83,569 crore," he said. The state also added 4,54,725 new IT/ ITeS jobs over the last eight years.

As per the ITIR estimates, the IT exports for the state (United state of Andhra Pradesh) were supposed to reach Rs. 2,09,221 crore by 2035.

"Going with our progress rate, Telangana IT exports will cross the 2035 projections by 2025 despite the no ITIR support lent. This means we will reach the 25 year target in 15 years," he said

Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) was approved for Hyderabad by the previous UPA government but the present NDA government appears to have shelved it.

Talking about marquee investments during the year, he said investment banking giant Goldman Sachs entered Hyderabad and they plan to grow to a headcount of 2,500 in three years.

Consumer electronics manufacturer OnePlus has made a debut in India through Hyderabad. It made Hyderabad a hub for making smart TVs in India. About 500 employees are involved in the production, and they are on their way to distributing one million smart television, he said.

The world's leading open innovation platform, Plug And Play, has set up its centre in Hyderabad for catalysing the growth of Automotive startups in the city in partnership with Startup Autobahn in Stuttgart, Germany.

MassMutual, a global leader in insurance services, has inaugurated a 2,000 employee facility. Stellantis (Fiat Chrysler Peugeot) set up a digital presence and expanded its Hyderabad operations targeting 2,200 jobs by 2024.

Genpact laid a foundation stone for its campus in Uppal in eastern corridor of Hyderabad in alignment with the GRID (Growth in Dispersion) Policy and will be adding 15,000 new jobs in the Easter corridor.

As per GRID policy, foundation stone was laid for the one million square feet Gateway IT Park in Kandlakoya in northern part of Hyderabad. More than 200 companies (SMEs) have applied for space.

American multinational Qualcomm has announced its largest campus (1.6 million sft) outside the US in Hyderabad which will be operational by October 2022. "Qualcomm has joined the big league - Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Uber, Salesforce, Micron and ServiceNow. Their second largest base in the world is in Hyderabad," he said

ABOSCH, a German MNC and a world leader in Mobility, Industrial Engineering & Home Appliances, has chosen Hyderabad as a strategic location with its Bosch Global Software Technologies and R&D presence. They have started their office in Hitech city and will employ about 3000 people working on technologies such as Cloud, AIoT/ML, Cyber, and embedded security.

The groundbreaking was done for Google's largest campus outside its headquarter at Mountain View, USA, a 3.3 Million sft energy-efficient campus built with sustainable standards.

Grid Dynamics, a digital transformation company with offices across the US & Europe, announced to open its first presence in India with a headcount of 1,000 by the end of the year.

The government of Telangana entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyundai to set up its proving grounds in Zaheerabad and be a part of one of its kind Telangana Mobility Valley in Zaheerabad. Hyundai will be investing 1,400 crore.

German automotive major, ZF, announces its largest engineering and R&D facility with over 3,000 employees in Hyderabad. This will be their largest facility anywhere in the world. ZF will be a major part of the Telangana Mobility Valley.