Ratan Tata Innovation Hub to come up in Amaravati: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati, Oct 14 (IANS) The government of Andhra Pradesh will soon establish Ratan Tata Innovation Hub in Amaravati, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said here on Monday. 

The Chief Minister held a review meeting on the policies being adopted for Industrial Development, MSME and Food Processing and made it clear that generating employment is the top priority of his government.

Chandrababu Naidu said that industrial policies should be in accordance with this and should pave the way for Speed of Doing Business by attracting investments.

He felt that more exercise was needed on the policy on private industrial parks and decided to bring before the Cabinet the other three policies at its next meeting. As the officials submitted to the Chief Minister the policies formulated on these subjects, Chandrababu conducted an in-depth study on them and also shared his views and experiences with the officials.

The Chief Minister said that the innovation hub that will be established in Amaravati will be named after the iconic industrialist Ratan Tata who passed away last week.

The hub will be a centre for skill development, start-ups, facilitation centre and innovation, the Chief Minister said.

Such hubs will be set up at five places in the state and one major company will be the mentor for each hub.

Chandrababu Naidu hoped that the innovation hubs will take the industrial sector much forward in the state.

"We should function as a friendly government with regard to attracting industrialists to invest in the state," he told officials.

The Chief Minister said his government was making every possible effort to attract investments to the State on a larger scale and as part of the exercise formulating new policies for all these departments. The meeting also decided to extend subsidies to those who come forward to invest in the State soon after these new policies come into effect.

The draft policies mentioned that those 200 companies which come forward first to submit their consent of establishment and date of commercial production may be provided with more incentives while those units which provide more employment opportunities will be given an additional 10 per cent incentive.

The Chief Minister informed the meeting that the State Government is thinking of a novel way of providing industrial incentives through escrow accounts, which he felt, will help provide more encouragement for industrial progress and better employment opportunities.

"Such crucial decisions will help create employment opportunities in a much faster way. The officials should conduct a deep study on the feasibility and the necessary procedures on this," the Chief Minister said.

The MSME policy should be formulated in such a way that it focuses on the concept of 'One Family-One Industrialist', Chandrababu Naidu said.

The review meeting also discussed in detail the steps to be taken to achieve the results in the food processing sector too like aqua and poultry sectors while it cleared the proposal to provide an additional five per cent incentives for women entrepreneurs in MSME and food processing sectors.

However, the policy on the industrial sector will be brought before the Cabinet only after another detailed exercise.

Ministers Kondapalli Srinivas and TG Bharat, along with the officials of the departments concerned were also present at the meeting.