Govt approves Reliance, Wipro, Biocon SEZs

The government today approved the proposals of Reliance, Wipro, Hewlett Packard and Biocon to set up special economic zones (SEZs) - a move that is expected to generate at least 67,000 jobs by March 2006.

The board of approval's meeting, chaired by department of commerce additional secretary G K Pillai, cleared various SEZ proposals including Reliance's 10,000 hectare mega SEZ at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

The board, under the commerce ministry, also approved Wipro's proposal for setting up SEZs in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Noida and Pune, official sources said.

Among other proposals that recieved the government nod include Serum Institute's pharma and biotechnology SEZ in Pune, Hewlett Packard's SEZ for IT and Biocon's biotechnology SEZ in Bangalore.