Telangana govt to set up 10-12 pharma village clusters away from habitations: Guv

Hyderabad: Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday said the state government is contemplating to set up 10-12 pharma village clusters in between 1,000 and 3,000 acres.

Addressing the Joint Session of Legislative assembly and Council on the opening day of the budget session here, Soundararajan said the government will continue to support champion sectors like IT and pharma.

The pharma village clusters will be away from habitations and also self-contained with facilities for effluent treatment, testing labs, logistics infra and social infra for housing, education and healthcare.

Even though the new congress government is only a few weeks old, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Minister for Information Technology Sridhar Babu successfully led a delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual meeting held recently in Davos, Switzerland and got a very positive response from Industry leaders, she said over Rs 40,000 crore in new investments were announced in Telangana by Global investors during this visit, where MoUs were signed in the areas of renewable energy, life sciences, manufacturing , data centres, food processing and IT.

One of the most significant forthcoming initiatives of this government would be to introduce the internet as a ‘basic right’ and the focus will not just be a to create ‘digital infrastructure’ but also to make it accessible and affordable to all sections of society, the Governor said.

The state government would implement a very thorough ‘digital literacy programme’ to ensure that every household, regardless of its economic status or location, would be able to benefit from the rapid digital adoption of opportunities that are arising, Soundararajan said.

She said the government would position Hyderabad and Telangana as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) capital of the country by inviting the top global and national technology companies to set up their AI Centres here.

The government will set up a dedicated ‘AI City’ in 50-100 acres,” the Governor said in her 15-page address.

The government intends to bring a completely new paradigm to support two vital sectors – Industries and Service sectors, she said it intends to introduce a ‘new policy that will be based on a thorough study of existing ground realities, feedback from stakeholders and taking cognizance of global best practices.

The government will provide high-quality infrastructure and will come up with ‘new systems’ to maintain the infrastructure, Soundararajan said it would also strive to take advanced action to create a skilled workforce from amongst the local youth , who can benefit from gainful employment in these sectors.

The challenges and requirements of MSMEs are quite different from those of large industries, the Governor said the state government would announce a ‘ new MSME Policy’ for helping them with improved technology and the ability to recruit skilled manpower, financing, market access and the prevention of industrial sickness.

An exclusive institutional mechanism will be set up to handhold MSMEs and support their grievances, she said in the half-an-hour budget speech.