Hyderabad calling: SG promises 1mn jobs in 3 yrs.

MUMBAI, INDIA: With an aim to make Telangana the most preferred investment destination in the country, the state government today announced a slew of initiatives.

The first is an ambitious hike of the target of national exports from the state to Rs 1 lakh crore from the current Rs 60,000 crore, and second, creating 1 million job opportunities in the ICT and electronics sectors in the next three years.

The announcements are in line with the government’s Make in Telangana vision, said KT Rama Rao, Minister for Panchayat Raj and Information Technology (IT), Government of Telangana, at press conference. He was accompanied by Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, ITE&C Department, Telagana.

Home to the largest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and global corporations such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, Oracle, DELL, Deloitte, JP Morgan, United Health Group and Facebook, the ICT sector currently employees over 3.25 lakhs IT professionals making Hyderabad the second largest IT exporter in India. The electronic sector has surpassed exports of $1 billon. Hyderabad has one of the largest concentrations of IT, ITES & electronics companies in the country, the minister informed.

New initiatives:

The Telangana Government aims to build upon this legacy and develop the city of Nizams into a truly futuristic city, by promoting innovation and technology, developing new growth sectors, and through smart city planning. On-going projects include the Hyderabad Metro Rail, advanced traffic management initiatives, well as a project to provide free Wi-Fi to all parts of the city.

Key e-governance initiatives have also been taken to serve citizens better and to improve the quality of living through e-learning, e-healthcare initiatives, right down to the Panchayat level.

Another key initiative is the Hyderabad ITIR (Information Technology Investment Region) Project spread over 202 sqkm with IT investment potential of Rs 2,19, 440 crore.

The minister also placed his bets on the T-Hub, touted to be India’s largest innovation incubation facility with built-up area of 300,000 sqft. Of this, 60,000 sqft will be operational by August 2015, he said.

The promise of a better infrastructure:

Some of the factors that have made Hyderabad the preferred destination include its strategic location, as well as easy access to South East Asia, which compares favorably with neighboring cities such as Bangalore and Chennai. Its ‘crossroads’ location and easy access to ports on both the eastern and western coasts have contributed to a rich legacy of entrepreneurship and wealth creation, Rao said.

ICT and ESDM policies and single window clearance:

The minister spoke about the industry friendly policies; some of these have been enumerated below.

· Electronic manufacturing clusters (EMCs): The Telangana government is setting up two EMCs near the international Airport. The EMCs are expected to attract investments worth Rs 800 crore and generate direct and indirect employment of 14, 000 and 84, 000 respectively.

· Telangana Academy for Skill & Knowledge (TASK): TASK academy is a unique and first of its kind initiative in the country aiming to strengthen the quality of college graduates by imparting industry-grade skill sets, both technical and non-technical.

· NDLM: First state in India to launch the National Digital literacy Mission program across the state.