TS takes quick initiatives on industrial development

Telangana has made several rapid strides – some of them being giant ones such as TS-iPASS and T-Hub – in the realms of industrial as well as information technology (IT) spaces in 2015, the first full calendar year for the newly-created State which came into existence in June 2014 after a prolonged phase of struggles and tribulations.

Foremost among its giant strides was the announcement of Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self Certification System (TS-iPASS) in June 2015. Dubbed as a revolutionary initiative by many, the policy which has been enacted into a law by the Telangana Assembly mandates approvals for industrial proposals within 15 days of receiving applications from investors.

Only those proposals which fall under ‘Red Category’ in pollution clearance list require three weeks of time for approval. Moreover, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, the policy has in place stringent penalties for those government officials and staff who cause delay in granting approvals to industrial proposals.

There was a visible upswing in the industrial activity across Telangana after the new policy came into force and the State had managed to attract investments totaling around Rs 26,000 crore under the TS-iPASS in the past six months. The other major development was the inauguration of T-Hub, billed as the country’s largest incubation centre for startups, in early November by Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons.

The facility located at IIIT-Hyderabad campus evoked an enormous response from the startup community, attracting over 1,000 proposals. Scores of startups have already made the T-Hub as their home and the recent visit of Satya Nadella, the Hyderabad-born Microsoft CEO, to the incubation facility put it into global limelight. The Telangana government is now busy with the task of building a bigger facility in the second phase as part of its ambitious quest to make Hyderabad the startup capital of India.

Apart from these, Telangana has also put in concerted efforts to become self-reliant in power generation and attract investments in diverse areas of aerospace, IT, solar energy and food processing, among others. Thus, the year 2015 has been an eventful year for Telangana on the industrial front.

By P Madhusudhan Reddy