Telangana Minister for Information Technology K.T. Rama Rao on Friday categorically said that all policies formulated in the new State will not be unilateral, but will be done so keeping in mind the best interests of all sections in general and specifically those of the disadvantaged and underprivileged.
“As a new State, the youngest in the country, our new industrial policy has been acknowledged by several States as well as the Centre as one that’s good and different. Everyone talks about the single window, but we have added several features like the right of investors to single window clearance, self-certification, just 15 days for mega projects and a month for other projects and even penal action against officials responsible for delays,” he explained.
“When an investor comes forward, we are not doing him a favour by issuing clearances, but it’s the other way round. Our Nodal Officers will escort investors from the airport and take them around the departments, including a meeting with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” he said, recalling how Tata Motors was motivated to go to Gujarat when it pulled out of West Bengal. He was addressing a gathering of economists, intellectuals and industry representatives, in a bid to showcase the State’s industrial policy as one that was radically different and investor-friendly, at a two-day seminar on ‘New Industrial Policy of Telangana State, 2014 – A Critical Look’ organised by the Centre of Economic and Social Studies (CESS) and National Akademi of Development (NAD).
He told media persons later that the plans for having industrial corridors from Hyderabad on one side to locations that included Mancherial, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Nagpur and Warangal were being firmed up and would be announced soon. This clearly showed the Telangana government’s move to decentralise industrialisation, he added.
Former Union Minister of State and now Chancellor, Central University of Gujarat, Yoginder K. Alagh, in his keynote address outlined the way forward for the new State and how it was not often that one got a serious invitation to design policies for a new State. He said while being land-locked was a challenge, it could be overcome with the use of technology.
