Though foreign affairs of the country is in the exclusive domain of the Union Government, Telangana is now mulling the idea of having its own “Foreign Minister” albeit with a different title. And the portfolio in all likelihood will go to the rising star of State politics, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K Taraka Rama Rao.
Taking a cue from another southern State Kerala, Telangana Government has finalised its plans to have a full fledged separate Ministry to promote Telangana abroad as an attractive destination for foreign investments and to deal with the affairs of the non resident Indians or migrants from the State.
Telangana Government is going to come out with its NIR Policy in a couple of days and announcement of this new Ministry will be the highlight of this Ministry, an official said. Confirming the development Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MP B Narsaiah Goud said, “It has been a long pending demand of the NRIs from Telangana to create a separate Ministry to deal with their problems and also to promote the brand of Telangana”.
He said the proposed Ministry will promote Telangana as one of the most industrialised States in the country and best suited for the foreign investment, he said. “KTR is the most suitable to handle this responsibility as he had already been promoting the State in his foreign tours successfully,” he said.
If it becomes a reality this will give a further boost to the profile of KTR who was already handling several other major portfolios in the state government including the most happening Information Technology and Municipal Administration and Urban Development.
The proposal of creating a Foreign Ministry in the State was finalised by the official after studying the NRI affairs’ Ministries of Keral and Punjab which have sizeable diaspora in Gulf and the western countries respectively. Telangana, specially Hyderabad also has a quiet significant number of its diaspora working in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries apart from the United States.