Telangana open for German industrial cluster

Hyderabad: Rolling out the red carpet for German companies to invest in Telangana, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said the State government would create a dedicated cluster for the German companies willing to invest here. “This would have some plug play facilities and would nurture an ecosystem,” he said. Addressing the German Investors’ […]

Hyderabad: Rolling out the red carpet for German companies to invest in Telangana, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said the State government would create a dedicated cluster for the German companies willing to invest here. “This would have some plug play facilities and would nurture an ecosystem,” he said.

Addressing the German Investors’ Summit here on Monday, he appealed to the investors community to opt for Telangana for their future investments as the State had a land bank of about 2,00,000 acre and a single window clearance system in the form of TS-iPASS, which in the past seven-and-a-half years had cleared about 17,500 applications worth about Rs 2.36 lakh crore (about $32 billion). Of this, about 25 per cent investments were from existing investors, the Minister said, adding that the State continued to focus on them even as it was trying to get new investors to the State.

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He said Germany’s dual degree method where the students get to do an internship or apprenticeship with the companies while they are still at colleges is worth emulating and this would be on the agenda for the State. He also said German SMEs, whose focus is on precision engineering, account for about 80 per cent of the GDP. The situation is similar in India with the SMEs aiding in large scale employment generation, Rama Rao said.

“Many offshore investors take an oversimplified view of India. Each State is a mini India as the culture, dialect, eating habits and other factors change every 150 km. There are 22 official languages and more than 300 unofficial languages in the country. India is all about diversity and heterogeneity,” he said.

The TSIIC, the State’s nodal agency for industry affairs, had been taking quick actions in matters pertaining to bringing investments to the State. The TS-iPASS mandated the officials to say a yes or a no for an industry proposal within 15 days. If the officialdom did not work on it in that period, it was a deemed approval on the 16th day, he said, adding that the industrial policy was announced taking the best aspects from several successful industrial policies within India as well as abroad.

The State was ensuring 24X7 power supply to all segments and about 15 per cent of the total power was from renewable energy sources, the Minister said comparing the situation of power holidays just seven years ago.

Telangana’s population was just 2.5 per cent of the country’s population but the State contributed five per cent to the GDP. The per capita income in the State was about Rs 2.37 lakh compared to Rs 1.28 lakh national average, Rama Rao said. It was 11th largest in terms of geographical size and 12th largest State in terms of population but was the fourth largest contributor to economy.

Telangana has many ITIs and polytechnic institutions and the candidates passing out from these will be the key manpower in technical enterprises. The Telangana government will train locals at its cost as per requirements of the enterprises, the Minister said adding that Telangana will meet or beat the offers that other Indian States give.

He said there are some areas like the pollution norms where the Centre and State governments have to work together. The State does not allow polluting industries in the city and is working on relocating the polluting industries outside the Outer Ring Road. The government is also allowing the existing land to be converted to other uses for financial viability, he pointed out.

German Ambassador to India Walter J Lindner, Karin Stoll, Consul General, German Consulate in Chennai and others were present.

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