What Telangana did in six years, India did in 28. When the state was created in 2014, less than half (47.6 per cent) of the state’s cropped area had access to assured irrigation. In the next six years, the state expanded this coverage to about 65 percent of total cropped area. The country as a whole took about 28 years to deliver a similar magnitude of increase in irrigation and yet, India’s irrigation coverage stands only at 52 per cent (2018-19).
