Thaneeru Harish Rao is an Indian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Telangana Legislative Assembly. He previously served as the Minister of the Medical-Health and Finance Department of Telangana from 2019 to 2023. He is the MLA from Siddipet constituency from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi Party since 2004. Between 2014 and 2018, Rao served as Minister for Irrigation, Marketing & Legislative Affairs of Telangana. With his win at the 2018 assembly election. Rao became the youngest six-time member of any legislative assembly in India. He was appointed as the Minister of Finance in the cabinet expansion held in September 2019. He was also appointed minister for Health, Medical, and Family Welfare in November 2021.

Harish Rao was sworn in as Minister of Irrigation in June 2014. He started the Mission Kakatiya program for restoring all the tanks and lakes in Telangana State. The program was inaugurated in March 2015 by chief minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao. As part of the program, the government restored 45000+ tanks and lakes. Under Irrigation ministry, TRS government redesigned the project Pranahitha-Chevella project on the grounds that the original project had too many environmental obstacles and had very low water storage provision.