KT Rama Rao credits iPASS for Rs 73,000 crore investments

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has attracted industrial investments worth Rs 73,000 crore in the last two years and provided direct and indirect employment to over 8 lakh persons.

Industries minister K.T. Rama Rao, who released the Annual Report 2016-17 on Industries and Commerce department here on Monday, said that over 50 per cent of 3,828 industries that were approved in the last two years commenced commercial operations within six months.

“These 3,828 industries have provided direct employment to 2.46 lakh persons in state. For every job provided under direct employment, 3 to 4 jobs will be created under indirect employment. This way, the government was able to provide employment to over 8 lakh people in two years,” Mr Rama Rao said.

He credited the results to TS-iPASS industrial policy brought by the state government on June 12, 2015, to give approvals for setting up industries within 15 days in a ‘zero corruption’ manner.

“Earlier in undivided AP, industrial approvals meant corruption, lobbying, delays, land scams etc. But we brought TS-iPASS in Telangana in June 2015.

Within two years of its launch, the results are here for all to see. No investor needs to meet ministers or officials offering bribes to get approvals. They will get approvals within 15 days, that too in self-certification mode. Even KPMG Global chairman appreciated our TS-iPASS terming it as first-ever in the world,” Mr Rama Rao said.

He said Hyderabad Pharma City phase-I being set up on city outskirts will be launched in October-November this year.

“Phase-I is being developed in 8,200 acres. Of this, 6,300 acres were already acquired. The balance will be acquired soon,” Mr Rama Rao said.

The minister added the Telangana state government will create Life Sciences Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore that will be used to set up sophisticated modular plug-and-play specialised infrastructure for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices industry.