Telangana IT Minister on Apple's New Development Centre and More

In December, Google announced a huge new campus in Hyderabad and now, during Apple CEO Tim Cook's visit to India, the company has announced the formation of a development centre in the city, to focus on digital maps.

In an interview with NDTV's Rajiv Makhni, Telangana Minister for IT, Electronics and Communication KT Rama Rao spoke about the development, and shared his views on other tech issues as well.

"Last May, it was Google who came to Hyderabad, and this summer we have Apple coming in. We inaugurated the Amazon facility. So now, out of the top five most valued technology companies in the world we have four of them setting [up] shop in Hyderabad," the Minister said.

"Google and Apple believe that there are a lot analytical abilities in India, there are a lot of problem solving abilities, great deal of attention to detail," he added, "obviously which will all help in building wonderful maps."

The minister also highlighted the potential for manufacturing and talked about the possibility of a "Make in India" announcement. "I don't think the day is far that'll we'll have an Apple manufacturing facility India," he said. "But with respect to what's going to happen Apple manufacturing in India, I think we'll keep our fingers crossed and let's hope it'll happen sooner than later."

However, at the same time, the Minister was also quite critical of the Union government about the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill. When asked about the bill, he said that the government can do better, and added that policies need to be more pragmatic.

"We could do a lot of things better," he said. "If the Union government takes the states into confidence and especially talks to those states which are proactive in terms of promoting investments, in terms of promoting IT."

"Before we make policies, before we make pronouncements, it's imperative that the Union government talks to the stake holders and specially the states because ultimately we have to be," he added, "when the Prime Minister talks about Making in India and the PM talks about Skilling in India and Digital India - none of these things will happen if we don't have the policies which actually are tailor made to promote them."

On Friday, NDTV will carry out an exclusive interview with Tim Cook where we'll get some more insight into Apple's plans for India, and for Hyderabad. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Apple's CEO, let us know and we'll ask him for you.