The state is slated to showcase to the captains of industry its industrial policy along with inherent advantages possessed by it as the best in class for investments, on June 12.
ITC Limited chairman YC Deveshwar and other top corporate executives are expected to attend the event. Arvind Kumar, secretary - industries, Telangana, explains to B Dasarath Reddy on how things will be different for industries henceforth
How things are different from the not-so-long-ago period in terms of policy and practice?
Since January, we were able to give continuous power to both domestic and non-domestic consumers, including industry, first time after a very very long time. The results were instant. The plastic industry, which was planning to shift Rs 194-crore investments to Rajasthan, decided to stay back following this improvement among other factors. In fact, the turnaround in the power situation has given tremendous confidence to the government as far as pitching for new investments and presenting new policies to the country’s top corporate leaders are concerned.
All approvals in 15 days is the tag line of the new industrial policy. How will you achieve this?
The government has transferred 145,000 acres of land to the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) for industrial use. Earlier, we used to take 6-8 months to clear an application for allotment of land. Now we can give it in 15 days. We have strengthened the TSIIC by deploying town and city planners among other staff for speedy approvals of building and layout plans. For the last three months, we have not come across a single pending approval at the state pollution control board. The provision for self-certification on compliance with rules and regulations will also eliminate delays. Also, we have made all the payments online.
Has the industry started responding to these changes? Which sectors are in the forefront?
The enquiries have gone up 40 per cent in the last quarter. Companies from sectors like pharmaceuticals, electronics, mobile phone manufacturing are coming forward with their investment plans. A lot of financial sector companies are also keen on setting up their back office operations in Hyderabad. The IT sector remains buoyant. We got tremendous response to the 2,500-Mw solar power development initiative from the private sector. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is going to formally unveil the solar power policy as well on June 12.
What is the status of the proposed Pharma City?
We could not get the approvals from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) as most of the area identified for this purpose was forest land. But we still have 1,800 acres of non-forest land at the proposed site and efforts are under way to acquire additional extent of land to develop the project.
There were apprehensions that companies promoted by entrepreneurs of Andhra origin might shift their base from Hyderabad or make their expansion plans in favour of Andhra Pradesh...
There were such apprehensions in the past. But nothing of that sort has happened in real life as things had only improved
in the past one year. There were no issues of security or law and order of any kind faced by any section of society in the past one year. People apprehensive of their comfort levels post bifurcation are also expanding their businesses very much in Hyderabad and other parts of the state.
All the front line states apart from Andhra Pradesh are offering a liberal package of incentives such as 100 per cent VAT refund to new units. What more would you offer to make Telangana attractive over other destinations?
Almost all the states in the country have been offering financial and other incentives to attract investments. Some do it with a fanfare and some do it quietly. You cannot attract investments merely by offering liberal incentives.
Companies would select a location based on a lot of other factors, including the quality of overall ecosystem, investment climate, basic infrastructure, power availability and peace. For instance, Hyderabad is a huge resource base for quality manpower required by any type of industry.