KTR hardsells Telangana to biz bigwigs

Hyderabad: Telangana delegation led by Information and Technology and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao met business heads from various companies on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.  

Rama Rao met Dr Petra Laux, Global Head Public Affairs Policy of Novartis and discussed expansion of operations of Novartis at Hyderabad. The Minister explained the overall plans for Hyderabad Pharma city and the animal testing facility in Hyderabad. Research and Development Centre (R&D) of Novartis in Genome Valley is one of its key development centres globally with focus on analytical development, stability studies and formulation development. 

Dr Petra Laux said, “The current lab space is about 90,000 square feet employing about 350 scientific researchers. We will be expanding to1,62,000 sq ft to establish high potent formulation development labs along with analytical development facility which will facilitate 150 more scientific researches,“she said. 

In another meeting, the Minister met Anthony Fernandes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Air Asia Berhad and discussed the prospects of setting up Air Asia's tech center in Telangana and running innovation programmes to support startups in aerospace sector.
 In a series of meetings held, KT Rama Rao met a delegation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries led by Ken Kawai, Executive Vice President. 

The Minister told about the prospects for the foreign investors in Telangana and highlighted the government’s industrial policy TS-iPASS, a single-window clearance initiative for investors. He invited Mitsubishi heads to Telangana to look into the opportunities for foreign investors. He appealed to set up a Japanese small and medium enterprises park in Telangana. 

The State delegation also met Aloke Lohia, Founder and Group CEO, Indorama Ventures PCL, polyester company. The Minister explained about Telangana's progressive industrial policies and also the existing textiles ecosystem in the State. The Minister asked Aloke Lohia to explore investment opportunities in Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park. 

The delegation met Foud Alghanim Company in Davos. Rama Rao said Telangana was leading in solar power production and the State has major opportunities in solar power sector. 

K T Rama Rao discussed the possibility of setting up their tech centre in Telangana with Mohammed Al Shaibani, CEO, Investment Corporation of Dubai at the Telangana Pavilion in Davos.  The Minister met Ana Pinczuk, SVP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and invited them to visit Hyderabad to explore opportunities for the collaboration with T-Hub in innovation space.

 The Minister congratulated Mani Vajipey, Co-Founder, Banyan Nation which is a T-Hub incubated startup that won the Dell People’s Choice Award for circular economy entrepreneur as part of the circulars economy awards at the World Economic Forum held at Davos.