Hon’ble Minister for IT K.T.Rama Rao on Davos summit day two

Telangana delegation led by IT & Industries Minister KT Rama Rao met business heads from various companies on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in Davos. 

The delegation headed by Minister KT Rama Rao met Dr. Petra Laux, Global Head Public Affairs Policy, Novartis. Expansion of operations of Novartis at Hyderabad was discussed in the meeting. Also in the meeting, Minister Rama Rao talked about the overall plans for Hyderabad Pharma City, the animal testing facility in Hyderabad. 

R&D Centre of Novartis in Genome Valley is one of their key development centers globally with focus on Analytical Development, Stability Studies and Formulation Development. 

Dr. Petra Laux expressed that Novartis is very happy about the city. She mentioned that their current footprint is about 90,000 Sft of laboratory space employing about 350 scientific researchers and will be expanding to 1,62,000 sft to establish its High Potent Formulation Development labs along with Analytical Development Facility which will facilitate 150 more scientific researchers. This expansion of Novartis R&D Centre will significantly boost the development of Genome Valley.

In another meeting, Minister KT Rama Rao met Mr Anthony Fernandes, CEO, AirAsia Berhad and discussed the prospects of setting up AirAsia's Tech Center in Telangana and running innovation programs to support startups in aerospace sector. 

In a series of meetings held, Minister KT Rama Rao met a delegation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries led by Mr Ken Kawai, Executive Vice President. In the meeting, Rama Rao talked about the prospects for the foreign investors in Telangana and also highlighted the Telangana 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. 

Later in the day, the Telangana delegation met Mr. Aloke Lohia, Founder and Group CEO, Indorama Ventures PCL which is the world's largest polyester company by capacity. During the meeting, Minister explained about Telangana's progressive industrial policies and also the existing textiles ecosystem in the state. Minister asked Mr Aloke Lohia to explore investment opportunities in Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park.

The delegation also met Foud Alghanim company in Davos. In the meeting, Minister KT Rama Rao said that Telangana is leading in solar power production and the state has major opportunities in solar power sector.  

Minister KT Rama Rao met with Mr. Mohammed I. Al Shaibani, CEO, Investment Corporation of Dubai at the Telangana Pavilion in Davos. In the meeting, Minister discussed the possibility of setting up their Tech Center in Telangana. 

In another meeting, Minister KT Rama Rao met Ana Pinczuk, SVP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise(HPE) today. Minister invited the HP team to visit Hyderabad to explore opportunities for the collaboration with T-Hub in innovation space.

Meanwhile, Minister KT Rama Rao congratulated Mr Mani Vajipey, Co-Founder, Banyan Nation which is a T-Hub incubated startup which won the Dell People’s Choice Award for Circular Economy Entrepreneur as part of the Circulars Economy Awards at the World Economic Forum being held at Davos.