One year after its formation, the government of Telangana, India's 29th state, announced its new industrial policy with much fanfare in Hyderabad on Friday, June 12th. Many industry leaders like ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar, GMR Group Chairman G.M. Rao, GVK Group Chairman G.V. Krishna Reddy, Cyient Chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, among others, complimented the Telangana government for wanting to be industry friendly and committing to industry that it intends to speed up the investment approval process and also ensure that access to key inputs like power, water and land are made easy in the state.
The key feature of the state's new industrial policy is its quick approval process mechanism. Called TS-iPASS (Telangana State Industrial Project Approval & Self Certification System), it is a self-certification process where an entrepreneur could go ahead and start his or her enterprise and simultaneously apply for clearances. The clearances would be given in about two weeks. In case they do not, then the project would be deemed to have been approved.
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Plus, if any official is causing unnecessary delay, then a fine of Rs 1,000 per day would be imposed on the concerned official. The high point in terms of actual investment plans was Deveshwar announcing the company's plans in the region. Looking to Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he said: "We want to put our money where our mouth is and we are going to invest Rs 8,000 crore on the strength of the vision you and your team have displayed."
Later, talking to Business Today, Deveshwar said, "I have said the faster they move, the speedier we will get with our investments." The investments, he said, would be on expanding its paper-making capacity in the state, apart from setting up a food processing facility and a couple of hotels.
He said, "We are a company sitting on Rs 17,000 crore of cash, so as soon as we get the permissions, we will go ahead with the investments." Within this Rs 8,000 crore, he said, investments into paperboard would alone take about Rs 4,500 crore. That would help double the company's paperboard producing capacity from 500,000 tonnes to one million tonnes in Badrachalam in the Khammam district of Telangana.
Incidentally, for quite some time now, ITC has been keen expand capacity here. Therefore, how the government responds will show if the investments do actually happen.
There was a good beginning made at the event with the state chief minister, seated on the dais, later informing the audience that as Deveshwar was speaking, he reached out to his officials to alert them on the investment plans announced by the company, and he was assured by his officials that they would be quick in their response.
State IT and Panchayat Raj minister K.T. Rama Rao , had in an interview to Business Today a few days ago, talked about the new industrial policy and how the state was trying to reach out to industry.
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