Venkat Raman
Auckland, June 2, 2023
The Telugu community in general and the people of Telangana, in particular, will rejoice the Formation Day today with greater significance as a famous music composer and director joins them at the celebrations.
Dr Saluri Koteshwara Rao, a music composer of almost 500 Telugu films, will be the Chief Guest at the event scheduled to begin at 6 pm at the Freemans Bay Community Centre located at 52 Hepburn Street, Auckland City.
Energetic Celebrations
The Telangana Association of New Zealand, the oldest registered entity representing the people of Telangana in New Zealand is organising the event to celebrate their Formation Day as well as providing quality entertainment.
Narender Reddy Patlola, Honorary President of the Association said that the presence of Dr Saluri, affectionately called, ‘Koti’ will make the event one of the most memorable in the history of the Association.
“As a composer, record producer, and singer who predominantly works, he has been instrumental in the success of hundreds of Telugu and Hindi films. His presence at our Telangana Formation Day will add energy and dignity to our Association,” he said.
Mr Patlola said that as well as speeches and a rich cultural programme, the event will include dinner for all guests.
Entry to the event is free. Further details can be obtained from Mr Patlola on 021-2345886.
About Dr Saluri Koteshwara Rao
The son of veteran composer S. Rajeswara Rao, Dr Saluri teamed with Somaraju (Raj), son of T V Raju to form the musical duo called Raj Koti more than 40 years ago.
The duo composed music for about 180 films from their debut in 1983 till their separation in 1994. After the separation, Koti composed music and background score for more than 350 movies. He won the Nandi Award for Best Music Director for the film Hello Brother (1994).
He started his music career as an assistant to music director K Chakravarthy. Composers such as A R Rahman, Mani Sharma, Harris Jayaraj, Devi Sri Prasad and S Thaman, worked as keyboard programmers with Koti during the initial part of their career.
Roshan Saluri, son of Koti is also introduced as a film score composer. Another son Rajeev Saluri started his career as an actor.
Progressive State
The State of Telangana was formed on June 2, 2014, after 60 years of struggle and it now stands as the Number 1 State in India in all aspects, Mr Patlola said.
Located at the Centre-South stretch of the Indian Peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau, Telangana is the 11th largest and most populated State in India with a geographical area of 112,077 kms. As per the 2011 census, the population of the State was 350 million.
The economy of Telangana is the seventh-largest in India, with a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of ₹9.78 trillion (US$ 120 billion) and has the country’s sixth-highest GSDP per capita of ₹237,632 (US$ 3000).
Telangana ranks 22nd among Indian states in the human development index.
The State has emerged as a major focus for robust IT software, industry and services sector and as the main administrative Centre of many Indian Defence Aerospace and Research labs like Bharat Dynamics Limited, Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Defence Research and Development Laboratory.
Services dominate
The Services Sector continues to be the largest in the State economy, accounting for 65%, followed by Agriculture (18%) and Industry 16%.
However, Agriculture has the largest labour force at 55.6%, while the Services Sector has only 26.6%, indicating the high level of technology being used. The State’s Industrial sector has only 17.8% of the total workforce.
Rice is the major food crop and staple food of Telangana. Other important crops include tobacco, mango, cotton and sugarcane.
Telangana is blessed with good water resources with the Godavari and Krishna Rivers flowing through, along with smaller Rivers such as Tungabhadra, Bima, Dindi, Kinnerasani, Manjeera, Manair, Penganga, Pranahitha, Peddavagu and Taliperu.
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, built across the Krishan River is the biggest in the world.
‘Promise’ fulfilled
Telangana was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad. It joined the Union of India in 1948 after an Indian military invasion.
The ‘Promise’ of a separate State for the people of Telangana goes back to August 15, 1947, when India became independent. The ‘Promise’ was not fulfilled even in 1957 when the ‘Linguistic Reorganisation of States’ was implemented.
Since then, the people of Telangana have been demanding the delivery of that ‘Promise’ peacefully. It became a reality in February 2014, one of the major acts of the outgoing government of Dr Manmohan Singh. Telangana is an independent State today with Hyderabad as the Capital.
Andhra Pradesh (AP) continues as an independent State sharing Hyderabad as the de jure Capital, while Amaravathi is its de facto capital.
The promulgation of a Statute declaring Telangana as an independent State provided for such sharing for ten years. ‘Telangana Formation Day’ is, therefore, a very important and emotional event for the people of Telangana.
