HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has decided to offer rent-free office space to IT companies, especially those run by Telugu NRIs, to encourage them to set up shop at the IT towers coming up in Karimnagar, Khammam, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Warangal.
Mindful of the rising real estate cost in Cyberabad, the government’s IT Department has decided to launch the zero-rental initiative as a post-Covid recovery measure for the companies. The cumulative built-up space of the IT towers in these Tier-2 cities is nearly 50,000 square feet.
The State government has offered companies, with presence in Hyderabad, to move to these facilities for free. As for NRIs, the IT Department officials said the decision to develop satellite IT towers with them was made three years ago. During their numerous visits to the US, the officials had found that there was a strong sentiment among Telugus and those from Telangana to ‘give back’ to the newly formed State.
Accordingly, the officials had urged them to set up subsidiaries of their companies in Telangana but the NRIs complained about lack of resources. “We told them that if an NRI has a 100-seater IT company in Chicago, Dallas, can’t he give 20 opportunities to the people of his hometown (in a Tier-2 city)? This helped us arrive at the decision to give away such spaces for a nominal cost. This offer assumes greater significance during the pandemic because of the freebies we are offering. In the US, rentals are high but here, we will be making it zero,” IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said.
As for human resources, the government plans to rope in students of local colleges, who will be trained by the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK). “There will be no dilution of quality. We will ensure that the candidate is trained and knowledgeable, just like those found in Dallas or San Diego,” Ranjan said.
However, as per Telangana’s policy, these sops would only be available for companies that have presence in India. So, officials have recommended that firms run by NRIs set up a subsidiary, concentrating a certain portion of their activity in Telangana. This would make them eligible for the sops.