IT not dirty word for TRS chief

Disinvestment can wait. For T. Chandrashekhar Rao, leading his band of Telangana activists, the one thing that matters to him is the birth o...

Disinvestment can wait. For T. Chandrashekhar Rao, leading his band of Telangana activists, the one thing that matters to him is the birth of a new state carved out from Andhra Pradesh.

But prod him a bit more and out comes a man who believes in a central approach to economic reforms. ‘‘Today we (and our economic policies) are subjected to global pressures. If the price of a barrel of oil is US $ 41, you have to increase the price of petroleum products here.’’ But he is cautious on the disinvestment policy. ‘‘Both must go hand in hand but mad disinvestment is not desirable. In fact, we must manage a balance between the public and private sector. But even in advanced nations such as the US and European countries, there is a degree of subsidisation and weaker sections of society must be protected.’’

Rao’s economic model has been christened the Process Method. ‘‘All over the globe, there are two approaches — the programme approach and the process approach. The programme approach is designed by a few people, there are transmission losses due to corruption and finally imposed on people. Instead the process approach, as I see it, takes people along and when adopted works. Look at the Ford company or the economies of the Scandanavian nations,’’ says Rao.

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Those expecting IT to be booted out of Cyberabad can take heart. If Rao gets Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital, e-governance and IT will continue. ‘‘IT is an area which is linked to creativity and innovations and the sky is the limit.’’ His theory is a marriage of e-governance with development.

However the hike in power tariff during Naidu’s reign hurt. ‘‘As it is the government was subsidising power to the extent of nearly Rs 1,900 crore. Giving free power would only add about Rs 300 crore. So it is a question of the government’s will, not economics.’’ His point — with Telangana yet to receive its promised 260 TMC water from the twin projects of Sri Ramsagar and Nagarjunasagar across Godavari and Krishna rivers, groundwater is only ray of hope.

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