Telangana

India's youngest state carries one of its oldest regional identities. Telangana emerged in 2014 after a six-decade movement demanding separation from Andhra Pradesh. Yet the Telangana identity predates modern India by centuries, rooted in the Kakatiya dynasty that ruled from Warangal between the 12th and 14th centuries. The Kakatiyas built the Ramappa Temple, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and constructed irrigation tanks that farmers still use eight hundred years later.

The Nizam dynasty ruled this region for 224 years, transforming Hyderabad into the wealthiest princely state in British India, complete with its own currency, railways, and postal system. When India gained independence in 1947, the seventh Nizam chose to remain sovereign. His paramilitary Razakars enforced this independence through violence until September 1948, when Indian forces launched Operation Polo. The five-day military action ended Nizam rule and brought Hyderabad State into the Indian Union. Eight years later, the Telugu-speaking Telangana region merged with Andhra State under a Gentlemen's Agreement that promised safeguards rarely honored in practice.

The transformation from feudal backwater to technology capital began in the 1990s. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu persuaded Bill Gates to establish Microsoft's first development center outside the United States in Hyderabad. HITEC City, nicknamed Cyberabad, grew across 15,000 acres. Google, Amazon, and Meta followed. By 2023, over 900,000 people worked in Telangana's IT sector, generating $32 billion in exports. The state now produces 30 percent of India's pharmaceuticals, and Genome Valley has become one of the world's vaccine manufacturing capitals.

Water defines Telangana's ambitions as much as technology. The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation system, stretches 500 kilometers through thirteen districts. Designed to irrigate 18 lakh acres, the project faces structural problems at its Medigadda barrage.

Telangana enters 2026 balancing these tensions. Hyderabad generates wealth that rivals established tech capitals while rural districts struggle with water scarcity. Whether the state can distribute its capital city's prosperity beyond the Cyberabad corridor will determine if Telangana's youngest-state status translates into lasting advantage or concentrated inequality.