K. T.

Rama Rao was born in the Karimnagar district of Telangana (erstwhile Andhra
Pradesh), India, on 24 July 1976.[9] His father, K. Chandrashekhar Rao, is the
founder of Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the 1st Chief Minister of Telangana and
mother, K. Shobha Rao, is a home maker.[10] His younger sister, K Kavitha, is the
President of Telangana Jagruthi and a former Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha
for the Nizamabad constituency,[11][12] K.T.R. is married to K Shailima.[13] The
couple has two children.[14]

K.T.R. was mostly educated in a boarding school environment through 7 different

schools in 10 years.[15] At the age of ten, he moved to Hyderabad and joined the
Amravati Public School at Yousufguda before shifting to Nalanda Public School at
Mehdipatnam.[16] He completed his schooling at the historic CSI-St. George's
Grammar School, Abids Road. Further, he pursued Intermediate from Vignan Junior
College at Vadlamudi, Guntur, and went on to graduate as BSc in Microbiology,
Chemistry, Botany from Nizam College of the Osmania University at Hyderabad.[17] He
holds two Post-Graduate degrees—MSc in Bio-Technology from University of Pune and
MBA in Marketing and E-Commerce from City University of New York(CUNY), NY, USA
[15][18]

During 1998–99, K.T.R. began his stint as an IT professional and interned at the
shipping and ocean logistics firm INTTRA Inc at Madison Avenue, New York, USA[16]
Political career

In 2006, K. Chandrasekhar Rao resigned from the United Progressive Alliance-I.[19]

K. T. Rama Rao resigned from his job to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and
began campaigning for his father who contested for the Karimnagar Lok Sabha by-
election in the same year. KCR won by a margin of over 2 lakh

.[16]

K.T.R. began his political career in 2009 when he contested the Andhra Pradesh
Legislative Assembly Elections from the Sircilla Assembly constituency. He won by a
close margin of 171 votes, defeating independent candidate KK Mahender Reddy.[20]

Soon after, K.T.R. and 10 other members from the TRS resigned from the Legislative
Assembly in support of a separate State for Telangana.[21] In July 2010, the High
Court of Andhra Pradesh ordered the Election Commission of India to conduct by-
polls in Sircilla and Vemulawada among other towns across the Telangana region.[22]
K.T.R. contested again from Sircilla defeating opponent KK Mahender Reddy (from the
Indian National Congress) yet again, this time with a huge margin of 68,219 votes.
[23]

[24][25] When the Telangana Joint Action Committee organised a rail-road-transport

blockade as part of the movement, he spent a night with the agitating protestors to
push for a consensus on the formation of Telangana and asked for a timeframe to
finish implementation.[26]

On 15 October 2011, K.T.R. and other TRS leaders and activists were taken into
preventive custody during another three-day rail roko agitation after police and
paramilitary forces were deployed by the Kiran Kumar Reddy government to control
the ongoing situation. They were released later.[27] On 27 January 2013, K.T.R.
courted arrest when he attempted to participate in the Samara Deeksha protest at
Indira Park at Hyderabad.[28]

On 3 October 2013, 64 days after the Congress Working Committee's resolution on

Telangana was passed, a cabinet note approved its formation in principle. In this
context, K.T.R. demanded that a Bill be introduced in Parliament in an interview to
Rajdeep Sardesai.[29] He also declared that the impending "Telangana government
will not compromise on any aspect of administration being delegated to the union
government with regard to (the city of) Hyderabad."[29]

He hinted at a working association with the Congress party in the future. But on 5
December 2013, a Group of Ministers report listed possible options of carving out
Rayal-Telangana with 12 districts and Telangana with 10 districts. K.T.R. reacted
strongly against the proposal.[30]

After the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2014, was passed by Parliament in
February 2014, K.T.R. clarified on behalf of the TRS that large sections of the
party have expressed their wish to retain regional identity in the Telangana
discourse (vis-à-vis allying with the Congress party in the new state).[31] After
the Bill received the President's assent and was published as an Act of Parliament
in the Official Gazette of India, K.T.R. adhered to the principle of inclusive
leadership by issuing a statement to the media in the wake of rumours attempting to
scare people of Seemandhra residing in Hyderabad (vis- à -vis their safety and
security once the new state would come into being on 2 June 2014):[32]

"All sections must derive confidence from the fact that even at the height of
our movement (for statehood), no individual, family or institution was harmed or
alienated. This has been the philosophy of the party and it will continue to be the
driving force in the days to come. We are looking forward for a Telangana that is
growth-oriented, development-oriented, drives employment, education focused and
takes care of the need of all sections of society." (April 23, 2014)[33]

Finally, the first Legislative Assembly elections for Telangana, the 29th state of
the Indian Union, were held on 30 April 2014 (which also coincided with the 2014
General Elections) K. T. Rama Rao contested as the MLA candidate for TRS from
Sircilla against Konduri Ravider Rao from the INC, winning the seat for the third
consecutive time by a margin of 53,004 votes.[33] TRS emerged as the ruling party
with the single largest majority in the assembly, winning a decisive mandate of 66
out of 119 seats.[34]

On 2 June 2014, K. T. Rama Rao was sworn in as Member of Legislative Assembly for
Telangana and Cabinet Minister for Information Technology and Panchayat Raj.[35]

K.T. Rama Rao, the legislator from Sircilla, has been appointed Executive Working
President of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Party (TRS) by the President and Chief
Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao.[36]
Role as Minister

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president KT Rama Rao offered homage to the
CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama attack and donated Rs 25 lakhs from his
personal income.[37]
Minister for Information Technology

Soon after assuming office, Information Technology (IT) Minister K.T. Rama Rao
briefed the Chief Minister on large-scale projects for a progressive Hyderabad in a
review meeting of the Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) Policy.
[38]

In December 2014, along with the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure

Corporation(TSIIC) Chairman, K.T.R. held discussions with the CEO of Smart City in
Dubai with regard to developing Hyderabad under the ambit of ITIR.[39] KT Rama Rao
also called on Yusuff Ali M A, chairman of the Abu Dhabi-based Lulu Group who said
that his company would invest Rs 2,500 crore in Telangana's FMCG domainfor 2015-16.
[40] During the same time, Rama Rao visited the Sonapur camp in Dubai to interact
with about 20,000 migrant workers from Telangana who resided there.[41]

In May 2015, K. T. Rama Rao had led an IT department delegation on a two-week tour
to the United States with the agenda of discussing and reaching partnerships with
corporate giants on various areas of collaboration with the Government of
Telangana. The top brass of 30 leading companies which include John Chambers of
Cisco, Mark Hurd of Oracle and John Veihmeyer, the global chairman of KPMG, met
K.T.R. to discuss the new industrial policy and ease of doing business in
Telangana.[42] He met Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, and Amazon executives Monique
Meche & John Schoettler who assured their continued support to the State's
initiatives in the IT space. The Minister had also exhorted Non Resident Indians in
a meeting at Seattle to be Goodwill Ambassadors in representation of the state
government outside India.[43]

In a bid to make Hyderabad a global city, K.T.R. was responsible in roping in close
to half a billion dollars' worth of investments in one month alone (May 2015) for
Telangana.[42] Google announced that it would set up its biggest development centre
outside the US in Hyderabad, with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore. In June that year,
Amazon announced that it would set up its second fulfilment Centre in the state
that is expected to be larger than the existing one, K.T.R. declared during the
inauguration of the latter at Kothur, Mahbubnagar district.[44] A memorandum of
understanding (MOU) was reached between the Government of Telangana and Amazon
Seller Services Private Limited (ASSPL). In partnership, Amazon India would offer
training to sellers and Small and Micro Enterprises through seminars, workshops,
and ready reckoners on e-commerce business.[44] In July 2015, Uber had announced
plans to set up its first Center of Excellence in Asia[45] and invest upwads of
US$50 million in Hyderabad, its biggest investment outside the US.[46]

On 4 June 2015, KT Rama Rao met Hong Kong industrialists at a summit organised by
CII where he interacted with close to 50 representatives from the electronic
hardware manufacturing space over investments and opportunities in Telangana state.
[47] On 8 June 2015, K.T.R. met the top executives of Foxconn Technologies, FIH
Mobiles and TECO Electric & Machinery Co as part of his visit to Taiwan and invited
them to set up units in Telangana. In a meeting with the top executives of these
firms, the Minister explained the new industrial policy of the State and the
interest being evinced by several companies to set up their manufacturing units in
Telangana.[48]

He set up the largest start-up incubator, T-Hub on 5 November 2015. A 70,000-

square-foot facility, the structure is constructed with an investment of Rs 40
crore in the first phase. The platform located at Gachibowliis one of K.T.R.'s
landmark initiatives for the state's young talent pool to innovate, incubate and
incorporate new ideas for entrepreneurship.[49] Up to 300 start-ups and provides a
futuristic workspace for up to 800 people at once.[50] K.T.R. conceptualised the
cell a step further than the norm by includingpublic private partnership and
mentorship as core features of the facility. This, by outsourcing business
mentorship to ISB, technology support to IIIT and IIT and legal guidance to NALSAR.
[50]

Phase II of the facility is expected to expand the space to over 3 lakh sq feet.
[51] Through the IT department, K.T.R.'s government has provided a seed fund of Rs.
10 crore to the T-Hub innovation fund and an initial capital of Rs. 125 crore is
expected to flow into an accelerator-focused fund.[52] He reportedly urged the
Chief Minister in December 2015 to allocate a bigger corpus going forward.[53]
Additionally, K.T.R. revealed that his government is keen to complete the impending
installation of more IT clusters along the Outer Ring Road, a gaming tower to
promote animation industry, a Data Analytics Park[54] and an SME Tower to encourage
small and medium companies.[55]

K.T.R. invited several industry leaders including Adobe Systems CEO Shantanu
Narayen, Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Infosys co-founder N R Narayana
Murthy among others to mentor young entrepreneurs of the state.[56] In December
2015, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka met with K.T.R. during his visit to T-Hub. Soon
after, the company announced that it was going to expand its Pocharam campus to
double the capacity to 25,000 employees as compared to 12,000 employees, making it
Infosys' biggest campus.[57] The Dalai Lama Centre for Ethics and Transformative
Values at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has decided to establish its
South Asia centre in Hyderabad.[58]

On 19 March 2016, K.T.R. urged Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad to sanction Rs 100 crore for the second phase of T-Hub. Mr. Prasad was also
urged to sanction Rs 3,000 crore due to the State for implementation of IT
Investment Region.[59]

Speaking about the government's single window clearance mechanism for mega
investors like the TSI-PASS, K.T.R. said that more than 1,000 organisations had
been given clearance between July and August 2015, paving the way for flow of
investments worth Rs 25,000 crore and creation of 70,000 new jobs.[60]

Another initiative reckoned as the brainchild of K.T.R. is the Telangana Academy

for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) that has enabledaround 40,000 out of the 75,000
engineering graduates turn readily employable for industry during 2015-16. In
K.T.R.'s assessment of the needs of Telanagan's youth, the TASK should be mandated
to create a workforce of 100,000 by the year 2022 through access to skill
development.[61] K.T.R. has linked T-Hub with this certification programmeto meet
the said 5-year target through a sustainable ecosystem of job creation.[62]

During a 2014 (CII) conference on Cyber Security, K.T.R. had urged industry to
collaborate with the government to combat cyber crimes. This, while emphasising a
dedicated workforce to defeat the threat that hackers pose to the IT
infrastructure.[63] Towards a Swachh Digital Telangana, in July 2015, two important
MoUs were signed in the presence of K.T.R.. As a result, One MoU between the
Government of Telangana and C.R. Rao Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and
Computer Science to make cyber security part of the state's multi-policy framework.
[64] Another was signed between TASK and Samsung South West Asia in offering
courses on software development and testing operations. In August 2015, the state
government partnered with NASSCOM and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) towards
making Hyderabad a cyber-safe destination.[65]

On his Mumbai tour during February 2016, KT Rama Rao got assurances from Reliance
Group and Tata Groups to invest in Telangana in varying capacities, especially the
prestigious double bedroom house scheme.[66] He is said to have extracted a promise
from Mukesh Ambani for establishing a world class university in the State in
Dhirubhai Ambani's name.[67]

On 10 March 2016, Governor E S L Narasimhan stated in his address to the joint

session of Assembly that, with K.T.R. as the first IT Minister of the state, the IT
sector recorded huge exports of Rs 68,258 crore through 1,300 IT units, including
500 global companies, which shows 16 per cent growth.[61]