Telangana ranks #11 nationally in the SKOCH State of Governance Report 2024, marking a steady mid-tier performance that blends sectoral excellence with focused innovation. The state submitted 17 well-performing projects, including two highly impactful and eight impactful initiatives. Unlike states such as Maharashtra or Gujarat that combine scale with breadth, Telangana has prioritised targeted, high-quality interventions, particularly in digitally enabled service delivery, tribal empowerment, and public safety.
Telangana’s standout strength in e-Governance, is reinforced by several transformative initiatives. The ePetty Case System has digitised petty case registration and judicial integration, leading to a 29% drop in major crimes and laying the groundwork for ICJS-based legal transformation.
Meanwhile, the Digital Transformation of Telangana State Warehousing Corporation, ranking #2 in Warehousing, has introduced real-time stock tracking, automated billing, and quality control to boost transparency and compliance in public storage systems.
Telangana also ranks #1 in Tribal Welfare, driven by innovative educational and empowerment models. The TGTWR Sainik School (Boys), Ashoknagar, and the Empowering Tribal Students through Sports – EMRS Initiative demonstrate a comprehensive approach to tribal upliftment—combining military-style leadership training, academic excellence, and athletic achievement.
These projects have enabled students from marginalised communities to gain admissions in premier institutions and win national competitions, showcasing the long-term payoff of inclusive education investments.
Another area of sectoral leadership is Food & Civil Supplies, where Telangana also ranks #1. The Weather Forecast Technology in Paddy Procurement initiative, led by the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation, is a cutting-edge example of climate-adaptive governance. It has enabled real-time weather-informed planning in paddy procurement operations, reducing crop loss and ensuring Minimum Support Price (MSP) compliance for farmers.
Telangana has made notable first-time entries in key categories. In Social Justice & Security, where it ranks #5, the Online RoFR Titles Granting System digitised forest land rights for Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, issuing over 1.3 lakh digital title deeds and disbursing over ₹595 crore in agricultural support. In Warehousing, the state’s debut earned a national #2 rank, driven by the successful digitisation of its warehousing ecosystem.
The state also made a comeback in Agriculture, securing the #4 national rank, with flagship initiatives such as Blockchain Enabled Seed Traceability (BeST). This project combats counterfeit seeds using blockchain and QR coding, improving supply chain transparency and farmer trust.
Skill development and craft modernisation remain other bright spots. The Skill Upgradation for Pottery Artisans project has revived traditional pottery through modern tools and eco-friendly practices, benefiting over 5,300 artisans and ensuring year-round income generation. The initiative balances cultural preservation with economic sustainability.
In Police & Safety, Telangana delivered consistent project throughput. The iRASTE Project, launched to reduce road accidents using AI-powered Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), has been rolled out in 200 public buses. It uses real-time alerts to improve driver behaviour and is a scalable model for intelligent transport safety.
Meanwhile, the Mahatma Jyothiba Phule Telangana Backward Classes Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society demonstrates the state’s commitment to equity in education. It supports over 200,000 students from backward classes and economically weaker sections, achieving 90%+ pass rates and enabling job placements, including admissions to IITs and NITs.
In the SKOCH State of e-Government Infrastructure Index, Telangana performs moderately, but not at par with its first-place ranking in the e-Governance sector. This disparity points to a gap between institutional capacity and service delivery infrastructure.
Telangana’s ranking on the SKOCH State of Financial Prudence Index is middling, with concerns around fiscal health, low capital outlay relative to GSDP, and a constrained own-tax revenue base. In comparison with Gujarat and Maharashtra—both of whom pair robust revenue generation with low debt-GSDP ratios—Telangana must diversify revenue sources and tighten fiscal consolidation. However, its expenditure on welfare schemes like Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu, while socially impactful, raises sustainability questions in the absence of stronger internal resource mobilisation.
On the SKOCH State of Government Transformation Index, Telangana does well due to the transformational depth of flagship schemes like TS-bPASS (building approvals), Dharani (land records), and Kanti Velugu (universal eye care), but the number of transformative projects remains fewer than top-ranking states. The quality of innovation is evident, but wider institutional adoption—particularly at district and municipal levels—is needed to move the needle on the index. States like Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, for instance, have outpaced Telangana by institutionalising reforms across more departments and levels of government.
Telangana’s performance on the SKOCH State of Government Efficiency Index shows moderate results. The index, based on the State of Governance and Finance indices, reflects Telangana’s efficiency trade-offs. Its governance quality is strong, but it does not consistently convert fiscal inputs into service outputs across all sectors. In contrast, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Gujarat demonstrate better capital expenditure management with equivalent or higher governance impact.
Improving project pipeline efficiency, better prioritisation of high-impact departments, and performance tracking mechanisms could enhance Telangana’s score here.
Finally, on the SKOCH State of Development Index, which aggregates performance across all five indices, Telangana performs competitively but not at the top tier. While it has pockets of excellence in governance and welfare delivery, the state must address underperformance in digital infrastructure, fiscal stability, and capital project execution. To climb into the top 10, Telangana needs to significantly increase the number of well-performing and highly impactful projects, particularly from district and urban governance units, while enhancing its fiscal space and institutional bandwidth for transformative reforms.
Telangana is a sectoral leader with high governance potential. Its targeted successes in welfare and digitisation need to be matched by systemic scaling and deeper fiscal and infrastructural reforms. With focused expansion in underperforming areas and broader implementation of its high-performing models, Telangana can push itself firmly into the national top 10 in the SKOCH Governance ecosystem.
States like Karnataka and Maharashtra outperform Telangana in broadband penetration, e-transaction volumes, and number of digital services. To bridge this, Telangana must scale up the backend architecture supporting its digital governance apparatus and focus on district-level and municipal integrations to deliver services more uniformly.
