Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will leave Hyderabad on August 17 on a foreign tour running until September 10, taking in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and China. At 25 days, it is an unusually long overseas trip for a serving chief minister.
The official delegation travelling with him is expected to include government adviser K Ramakrishna Rao and a group of senior officials. The itinerary is built around investor meetings in each country, with the delegation flying first to the UK and then on to the United States.
Bharat Future City leads the pitch
The government’s headline offering to global investors will be Bharat Future City, the greenfield urban project it wants to position as Telangana’s flagship destination for large-scale industrial and technology investment. The Chief Minister is expected to seek partnerships not only from industrialists but also from foreign universities, sports organisations and training institutes.
Campuses, skills and sport
Education is the second big theme. The delegation plans to visit leading universities and skill development centres in the UK and the US, with the possibility of signing memorandums of understanding aimed at lifting higher education in the state closer to international standards.
Some foreign universities have already shown interest in setting up campuses in Telangana, and officials say the trip will be used to widen that list. Strengthening the sports ecosystem and building internationally recognised skills among young people have also been flagged as priorities.
The politics of a long trip
The tour comes at an awkward political moment. The opposition has spent recent weeks attacking the government over its recruitment record, pointing to the pledge to fill one lakh government jobs that remains unmet. Opposition leaders have seized on the contrast between an extended investment mission abroad and unfilled vacancies at home.
Before departure, the Chief Minister was directed by an ACB court to furnish a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh along with a surety, submit a detailed travel itinerary in advance, and obtain political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs.
The trip will ultimately be measured by a familiar yardstick. Memorandums signed at investor meetings are easy to announce; what matters is how many convert into committed capital, built facilities and jobs on the ground in Telangana. That verdict will take considerably longer than 25 days.
Leave a Reply