World’s biggest pharmaceutical cluster, Telangana’s Pharma City, to be launched shortly: KTR
Hyderabad: Pharma City, the largest pharmaceutical cluster in the world in the making, has received all the required clearances and is getting ready to be launched shortly. The works on the 19,000-acre project, which will help the pharma companies achieve economies of scale, are progressing rapidly, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said here on Saturday.
peaking at the CII Southern Regional Council meeting, he said Telangana has achieved rapid progress across sectors and it will continue to maintain the growth momentum even as it will try to explore untapped sectors.
Prime Minister Narender Modi had called politicians from across the country two years ago to take feedback on what needs to be done to put India on a growth highway. “Telangana suggested the 3I mantra- innovation, infrastructure and inclusivity. The State has been following this and the results have been very encouraging,” he said.
Innovation was not just a subject matter of the technology domain. It could happen in governance as well, he said, adding that the State’s industrial policy TS-iPASS was one such innovation. Good practices in select markets were studied before announcing this and it heralded a single window system for industries and the approvals are given within 15 days. The proposals get a deemed approval on the 16th day if there is no valid reason for delay. It also had provisions to levy a penalty on the officials responsible for the delay and also to meet or beat the incentives offered by other States.
So far, about 20,000 industrial proposals have been approved in the past eight years based on self certifications from the companies and this translated into investments worth $ 35 billion (about Rs 2.83 lakh crore) and a direct employment to about 16 lakh people. The State is also focused on reducing the cost of doing business for the industries. The industries that have land can straight away begin the construction of their units without approvals from the multiple departments. However, the details of the investment, employment generation, and other details along with the self-certification have to be provided online.
Telangana is now home to the largest incubator, T-Hub, and also to India’s largest prototyping center, T-Works. It has set up other bodies like the TSIC, RICH, WE-Hub and others.
The State is focused on creating an enabling infrastructure with an aim to ensure that development happens across Telangana and not just around Hyderabad. The companies in India have a huge potential to tap as many players are looking for a China Plus One model for their operations after the pandemic. This approach will ensure that the activities are not disrupted in the future.
The last pillar is inclusivity or making all partners in growth. The per capita income of the State eight years was Rs 1.24 lakh and that is now grown to Rs 2.78 lakh, the highest in the country. The GSDP of Telangana was Rs 5.05 lakh crore in 2014 and now it has grown to Rs 11.55 lakh crore. If all regions were to see a similar growth like Telangana, the country would have crossed $ 6 trillion in economy. However, it is still pegged at $ 3.1 trillion economy, he said.
Hyderabad now accounted for about one-third of vaccines produced in the world. With various expansions planned by multiple entities, the vaccine capacity will grow from the current nine billion doses to 14 billion doses, accounting for about 50% of the total vaccines production capacity, in a few years. He placed on record the good work done to promote the life sciences sector by his predecessors.
Digital revolution is taking up in a big way and the industry cannot miss this Industry 4.0 opportunity.
Therefore Telangana is driving innovations through institutional set-up as today’s start-up is tomorrow’s MNC, Rama Rao said.
Technology giant Amazon has its largest campus of 3.1 million sqft in Hyderabad. Several big names like Apple, Google, Uber, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Novartis and several others have large presence in Hyderabad. The IT exports have touched Rs 1.83 lakh crore, from Rs 57,000 crore eight years ago. That Hyderabad went past Bengaluru in office space absorption for four quarters tells the dynamic nature of the city. Bengaluru, on the other hand, was growing due to the inertia effect of its early start, he said.
He said Hyderabad fared well when compared to other metros in terms of traffic, climate, pollution and other parameters. The State focused on completing the Kaleshwaram Project, the largest lift irrigation project in the world. This is spawning five revolutions- green (food grains), blue (fisheries), white (milk), pink (meat) and yellow (edible oils) revolutions. The Southern States account for about 35 % of the GDP, the minister said.
Former CJI Justice NV Ramana attended. Suchitra Ella, Chairperson, CII Southern Region & Mr. Kamal Bali, Deputy Chairman appreciated the efforts of Government of Telangana in making the state as one of the best states in the country in terms of infrastructure development and attracting investments.
