Telangana, the country’s youngest state, shines on good governance initiatives taken across the sectors. The State has made extensive use of technology to improve service delivery system, bring transparency and ensure accountability of employees. Telangana, which came into existence as 29th state of India on 2 June 2014, is among the Star performers in SKOCH Governance ranking for the year 2016.

The State has taken commendable steps to improve governance and accelerate economic growth. The government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has come out with a vision to build ‘Bangaru (Golden) Telangana’. As per the Socio Economic Outlook, 2016 released by the Planning Department, Government of Telangana, the Government’s priorities could be broadly grouped into three categories: (i) measures to accelerate economic growth; (ii) improving infrastructure facilities; and, (iii) programmes targeting social welfare and inclusive growth.

The State bagged 47 SKOCH Orders-of-Merit Awards this year, out of which, 21 were in e-Governance category. 6 Awards went to Municipalities, 4 to Education & Skills, 6 to Police & Safety, 3 each to Governance and Transport, 2 to Agriculture & Research & Development and 1 to Health. The State won total of 10 SKOCH Governance Awards—5 Platinum and 5 Gold.

Economy

Telangana is one of the fastest growing states in India and the per capita income of the State is much higher than the national average. The State registered a growth of 11.7 per cent, at current prices, as against national average of 8.6 per cent in 2015-16 (Advanced Estimates). The State economy is expected to grow at 9.2 per cent at constant (2011-12) prices, as against national average of 7.6 per cent during the same period. Telangana’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) posted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5 per cent between 2004-05 and 2014-15. Service sector has been the fastest growing, with a CAGR of 14.1 per cent during 2004-05 to 2014-15 period. Services account for 57.1 per cent of the state’s GSDP. The share of Telangana in India’s economy stood at 4.1 per cent in the financial year 2015-16.

Key Achievements

The State has taken several pioneering steps to improve governance. The State tops in e-Governance initiatives.

Impressive steps have been taken by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Food & Civil Supplies to improve service delivery and make the system more transparent. An Online Procurement Management System implemented by the Department has helped eliminate corruption and made the process prompt and transparent. Under the new system the Government has decided to pool all funds at a central account and transfer funds directly to the farmer’s account. Farmers are paid their money within 48 hours. The Department has implemented an online application called electronic Point-of-Sale that captures time-to-time retail transactions made at Fair Price Shops (FPS) through e-PoS devices of Public Distribution System (PDS).

Benefits of good governance initiatives are visible at the grassroots. Akoli village, in Jainathmandal of Adilabad district of the State has become 100 per cent digitally literate. Now all the eligible villagers own Digital Lockers and all the farmers are registered with m-Kisan portal. Hyderabad Police has introduced a multi-faceted mobile App called “Hawk Eye”. The App integrates the Police communication network system for prompt response to citizens. It also serves as Emergency Responsiveness System through “SOS” and “Women Travel Made Easy” in addition to
other features.

The Department of Registration & Stamps has introduced a project called e-Stamp duty in Telangana – Assessment, Management & Payment System (eSTAMPS). It has not only reduced the drudgery of the SROs in manual documentations, but has allowed in assessing and managing the payments system with systematic and computerised records of the same. The system has proven to be cost effective, ensured transparency, eliminate fake challans thereby preventing loss of revenue and improved in the efficiency of service delivery.

Municipalities in the State have taken a number of steps to make the cities cleaner and improve the standards of living of the common people. Kodad Municipality’s work in Solid Waste Management; Greater Hyderabad Municipal Coporation’s work in widening and deepening of trade license tax base through utilisation of third party information through data mining; and, e-Office at Warangal Municipal Corporation have all shown improved performances. Municipal Administration of Telangana has launched Swachh Telangana Mission – Public Awareness Programme with an objective to bring behaviourial change in people’s attitude towards cleanliness. Swachh Telangana MIS project has been introduced to capture, analyse and monitor the physical and financial progress of the cleanliness drive in all the 68 municipalities of the State.