Hyderabad:
Since assuming charge as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, stance has been to project himself
as the 'son of the soil' basically to appeal to the farmers
and rural populace who proved to be the undoing of ex-cm
Chandra Babu Naidu.
Thus announcements of free power to farmers and rescinding
of power purchase agreements with power companies came
within short succession of each other within a short time
of his assuming power causing no small alarm to industry
and even to prime minister Manmohan Singh.
However, in recent speeches after holding office for a
little over a month he focused on areas where the future
revenue is most likely to come from Industry.
Speaking at a recent industry forum YS R Reddy's talk
was all about promoting basic industry, which he said
would be his government's priority along with agriculture
and rural development. To spread some degree of calm among
industrialists he said, "When I said agriculture
and rural development was my priority, it didn't mean
that industry was not my agenda. It is of no less priority
for the government," he said.
He further assured the industry that the Government would
do every thing required to increase FDI into the state.
He said the state has received just 4 percent of the total
FDI coming into the country, "a meagre Rs 1,608 crore
as against a total FDIs of Rs 51,600 crore," he said.
Apart
from basic industry, the IT also may have no need to worry
as the IT department has been given the go ahead to look
out for possible joint venture partners across the country
for infrastructure development.
An
internal survey, conducted by the state IT ministry with
inputs from various consultancy agencies, software companies,
enquiries from overseas companies, expansion of companies
in both IT services and BPO/IT enabled service sector,
projected investments, has sought 30 million sq ft area
of basic infrastructure with necessary bandwidth, water,
power and other basic facilities.
The
government is said to be looking out for major infrastructure
developers in the country to develop facilities not only
in Hyderabad but in second-level cities such as Visakhapatnam,
Vijayawada, Warangal, Tirupati and Guntur. "The government
believes that infrastructure majors could not only be
able to market the state easily but bring in potential
customers, particularly overseas customers who seek quality
infrastructure with adequate manpower to start with.
Among the measures initiated by the government are initiating
talks with major infrastructure developers in the country
such as Rahejas, L&T Infocity, Ascendas, DLF, Divyashree,
RMZ apart from other Malaysian and Singapore companies
to develop and bring in potential customers to the state.
Establishing
satellite links in cities like Warangal, Tirupati, Guntur,
Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam with the STPI.
With the entry of new companies such as Quallcom, NCR
Corporation, 3Com, Google, Computer Associates, Computer
Science Corporation, Cypress Semiconductors apart from
the massive expansion of existing companies such as Satyam,
Wipro, Infosys, Keane India, Nipuna and others officials
in the government
are certain that the state will emerge as one of the top
three IT destinations in India, up from its fourth position.
|
|