Topper state boosts Hyderabad IT prospects

Hyderabad is likely to attract more investments in the information technology (IT) sector, thanks to the state of Telangana achieving the top slot in the Centre's Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings announced last week.

The availability of land, good infrastructure, conducive ecosystem and industry-friendly policies would help Hyderabad to catch up with Bengaluru and Chennai in terms of IT sector growth, say industry representatives. Telangana scored 98.78 per cent in the EoDB rankings that was declared by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

For the first time, the state government has issued online clearances through the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-iPASS), based on self-certification by investors. Industry incentives such as sales tax refund and capital subsidy are also being delivered to the individual bank accounts through RTGS (real-time gross settlement systems).

"The state government is leveraging technology to increase transparency. IT companies look for skilled manpower and good business atmosphere. With prominent engineering colleges, Hyderabad has a huge talent base. The state IT policy, including the sectoral policies, welcomes the global IT giants to start their operations here," CII-Telangana vice-chairman V Rajanna said. Besides attracting new firms, the state government is equally paying attention towards the existing companies as well.

It has promised to implement a mechanism to take care of the IT firms through a single point of contact to speed up the processes, on the lines of a chasing cell, according to Rajanna.

"State IT and industries minister K T Rama Rao has been marketing 'Brand Telangana' during his foreign visits. In the past 12-18 months, many global companies like Amazon, Google and Uber have chosen Hyderabad to invest millions of dollars for setting up their development centres," said Telangana Information Technology Association president Sundeep Kumar Makthala.

Listing out several advantages of Hyderabad over other Indian cities, he said the city was a favourable destination due to its climate, cost of living, seismological reports, connectivity infrastructure and availability of land bank. Currently, IT companies offer direct employment to more than four lakh people in Hyderabad.