Hyderabad, June 17 (FN Agency) The successful introduction of TS-iPass scheme by State government in 2014 has attracted in just seven years over Rs.4.1 trillion investment and generated around five lakh direct jobs and equal number of indirect jobs, despite Covid-19, according to the study on development of Telangana released jointly by Dr D S Rawat, Chairman, MSME Export Promotion Council (MSMEEPC) and Mr Jigish Sonagara, Founder & CEO BillMart Fintech, a knowledge firm here on Thursday. The State has achieved a unique position of projects getting clearances from 38 different departments in a span of less than ten days, the study revealed. Dr Rawat said significantly contributed to the ‘ease of doing business in the State and the achievement in attracting fresh investment has been much higher than the investments received in a 7 year span prior to the introduction of the scheme. Referring to the CMIE CapEx database, Rawat said, in terms of count of projects announced, there has been a surge. Prior to the TS-iPass scheme, 1126 project announcements were made and it increased to 1461 post the implementation of the scheme which is a 30 per cent increase in the project count.
In 2020-21, 218 projects worth Rs.399 billion were under implementation against 109 projects worth Rs.309.6 billion in 2019-20, under implementation, registering a growth of 29 percent, he added. Mr Sonagara said, as per the CMIE report, as on 31 May 2022, the new investment in the state by all (government, private sector and foreign direct investment) have significantly increased and though youngest yet fastest growing states. In 2019-20, the new investment projects announced were worth Rs.518222.8 million, investment projects completed were worth Rs..123524.7 million and Rs.47449 million worth of projects were revived, he said. In 2021-22 witnessed a sharp increase in the new investment projects announced and touched to Rs.41363.7 million, he said the per capita income of the state increased by 125 per cent in the past seven years from Rs.1,24,104 in 2014-15 to Rs.2,78,833 in 2021-22. The gross state domestic products (GSDP) increased fro Rs.5 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs.11.54 lakh crore in 2021-22, as the state has shown rapid and robust economic growth amidst a global and national economic slowdown, he added.
Mr Sonagara said, it is estimated that the state has 26.05 lakh MSMEs; micro sector 25.94 lakh, small 0.10 lakh and 0.01 lakh in medium sector providing employment to over 40 lakh people. Though the state and central government have announced various policy initiatives, this sector is confronted with various problems such as technology, availability of timely competitive credit, lack of access to financial solutions. He said, over 95 percent of the micro units are not able to access the credit due to lack of knowledge, not maintenance of proper records/documents necessarily needed for availing various available incentives and exploring credit from other than banks such as NBFCs/FinTech companies. Even globally, fintech investment is growing @ 14 per cent annually and already crossed $44 billion in 2020.and may touch $65 billion towards the end 2022, he added. The BillMart has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the MSME EPC and other regional/state level associations and chambers to help their constituents in the MSME sector to skill them on how to make use of technology for growth of their businesses and up-date their data. The BillMart chief said “BillMart has launched a MSME GAIN (growth and intelligence network) with a vision to benefit one crore MSMEs with 100 crores hours of knowledge upgradation by 2024. It will endeavour to empower the businesses to decide the most suitable and customized financial solutions for their businesses.