Select gateway into India wisely: KTR urges investors
Industries Minister KT Rama Rao urged the investors to select the gateway into India wisely and assured that experience of collaborating with Telangana would be different compared with Uttar Pradesh.
“Your experience of India will hinge or depend on which gateway you choose to enter in India. In Hyderabad, we work very differently, our cultures and thinking is different,” he said at Diplomatic Outreach Programme here on Friday.
The programme was organized at T- Hub by Invest Telangana and diplomats, ambassadors, Consul Generals from different countries participated in the programme.
Addressing on the occasion, the Minister said India cannot be compared to any other country as it was unique and heterogeneous. The culture, cuisine and language, changes for every 100 kms to 150 kms here and India was diverse, he said.
“We are a federal republic and the best way to understand India is to understand the federal structure” said the Minister.
Each State was empowered to take decisions in terms of attracting investments and the real action was in States.
While, the overall foreign trade and tariff related issues could be vested with Central Government. Land, water, manpower, power and fiscal incentives were States Governments domain, he explained.
“If you share the fiscal incentives offered by other States, we will assure you that Telangana with either meet or beat those offers,” said Rama Rao.
Two years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited Ministers and other delegates to discuss measures on making India a first world country. During the meeting, an appeal was made to focus on innovation, infrastructure and inclusive growth as was being done in Telangana, he said.
Stating that in a short span of eight years, Telangana had achieved tremendous growth in different sectors, including agriculture, industry, IT and pharma, the Minister said the GSDP was Rs.5.06 lakh crore in 2014 and it increased to Rs.11.55 lakh crore in March 2021.
“Telangana is home to one third global vaccines supply. Covaxin and Corbevax came from Hyderabad and nine billion doses of vaccines are produced per annum from Telangana” said Rama Rao.
Briefing about the life sciences sector in the State, the Minister said the largest number of US FDA approved pharma manufacturing facilities for any single province were in Telangana and the second largest was in New Jersey. More than 250 such units were operating here and that makes Telangana the pharma capital of India, he said.
“US President Joe Biden’s helicopter cabin is also made in Telangana” Rama Rao said stressing on the aerospace sector growth in the State.
Telangana Government was striving on Green Revolution (agriculture expansion), Blue Revolution (State is exporting fish, prawns and shrimp to US and Europe), White Revolution (dairy expansion), Pink Revolution (meat processing and livestock growth) and Yellow Revolution (extensive cultivation of oil palm to cut down palm oil imports), he said.
Diplomats’ quotes
Ministry of External Affairs OSD (States) Dr. C Rajashekhar: Twenty years back, the buzz used to be if a company was not present in India, it was not complete. But now, if a unit is India and not in Telangana, then you perhaps are missing the bus. Telangana has put together the required ecosystem in a short span of eight years.
Austria Honorary Consul Vagish Dixit: I am a partner in Austrian company. We have invested 100 million dollars in the last 10 -12 years in Telangana in a B2B initiative and nearly 50 million dollars in the last two years during covid time.
I have never had to meet the Industries Minister or top officials for any personal work of my company, which is present across 45 countries. There is no hindrance from any Government department in Telangana. Power connection is established in a month.
Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan Nawab Mir Nasar Ali Khan: We are working with Government of British Columbia on a sustainable housing project in India. The first project is in Telangana.
They had a choice of selecting any State or even a country but they choose India and Telangana particularly because of the governance. Kazakhstan’s Astana Hub is signing a MoU with T-Hub in September.
