Telangana eyes IT investments from Bengaluru

Eyeing investments from tech hub Bengaluru, Telangana is offering a slew of incentives and speedy clearances to IT firms to expand or set up new development centres in Hyderabad.

"We are here not to take away IT companies or compete with the numero uno status of Bengaluru but to invite Indian and multinational firms to expand operations or set up new centres in Hyderabad," Telangana Information and Technology (IT) minister K.T. Rama Rao told reporters here Wednesday.

Though Hyderabad lags behind Bengaluru in terms of size or scale, it ranks second after the city in the country's IT exports, accounting for Rs.60,000 crore in fiscal 2013-14.

"We are targeting Rs.100,000 crore revenue from IT exports and creation of an additional one million jobs in the ICT (information and communications technology) and electronics sectors over next three years from 325,000 currently," Rao said.

The minister was speaking on the margins of a road show he held to pitch for investments from here.

Of the total Rs.200,000 crore IT revenue that Karnataka generated in fiscal 2013-14, including Rs.165,000 crore from exports, Bengaluru accounted for 90 percent of it, with rest from Mysore, Mangaluru and Hubli.

"Being a new and youngest state in the country, Telangana is a start-up state to attract entrepreneurs, innovators and angel investors to Hyderabad where we have an IT hub to incubate start-ups or enterprises with seed capital, skill sets and mentoring to innovate and make IT products and services," Rao said.

The state government has set up the Telangana Academy of Skill and Knowledge (Task force) in collaboration with the Indian School of Business (ISB), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) to mentor and provide expertise to the IT hub.

"We have also set up a single-window agency to grant approvals within 21 days to mega projects with Rs.250-crore and above investments. If clearance is delayed, investors can go ahead with their projects with self-certification process," Rao asserted.

Claiming that infrastructure cost in Hyderabad was much cheaper than Bengaluru or Chennai, Rao said the Deccan city was located in the heart of the new state, connected to all its 10 districts with road and rail network and accounts for 40 percent of urbanisation.

"Formation of Telangana has ushered in political stability, decisive leadership and speedy clearances for existing and prospective investors from within the country and overseas," Rao added.

"We also have 200,000 acres of land bank around Hyderabad and in four of its adjoining districts."

Home to global IT majors such as Microsoft, Google, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant, IBM, Oracle and Dell, Hyderabad has one of the largest concentrations of Fortune 500 firms from the world over.