Dec. 14 – The Indian government will create a  state of Telangana from parts of Andhra Pradesh after the Home Minister P. Chidambaram gave into demands to create a defined state for the marginalized Telangana people.

The decision adds another state to the Indian Union and has serious implications for the current state capital, Hyderabad. The decision was announced following days on unrest in Hyderabad and a well-publicized hunger strike by the local politician K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Telangana used to be the princely state of Hyderabad both prior to and during the days of the British Raj, and was ruled by the Nizam outside British control. However, after Indian independence, the state was brought into the Indian Union by merging it with the state of Andhra to create Andhra Pradesh.

Over the years the Telangana people have felt marginalized and an increasing campaign for their own state recognition has intensified. This coupled with Hyderabad’s success over the past decade – as one of India’s most prosperous cities and center for IT and software outsourcing businesses – has seen the stakes for the Telangana people increase.

However, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah asserted this weekend that although the Center has announced its decision on initiating the process for the formation of a separate Telangana, nothing has been finalized.

The formation of a separate state needs to go through several processes, including eliciting the views of all stakeholders. “Moreover, I have not received any communication in writing from the Central government on the introduction of a resolution in the Assembly,” the Chief Minister was quoted by The Hindu.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday assured a delegation of Congress MPs from non-Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh that nothing will be done in haste on the creation of a separate state reports The Economic Times. According to senior party leader K. S. Rao, the MPs from coastal Andhra and Rayasaleema regions met the Prime Minister for 40 minutes and assured them that “nothing will be done in haste.”

On the home minister P. Chidambaram’s statement on the issue, Rao said it was “nothing new” but a reiteration of the old stand of the Congress and the Centre. “He (Chidambaram) only said that the process will be started by asking the state assembly to move a resolution,” Rao told The Economic Times.

Telangana would likely carve out an area of approximately a third of Andhra Pradesh, which has a current population of 77 million.The state GDP is US$25 billion while per capita income averages US$283. The name Telangana means the land of Telugus.

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The official Telangana website