Wipro will continue to invest in Telangana: Azim Premji

Hyderabad, April (IANS) Wipro will continue to invest in Telangana as the state government here is progressive, Founder-Chairman of Wipro Group, Azim Premji, said on Tuesday.

"Wipro will continue to invest here because we find the state government to be very progressive," he said at the inauguration of a manufacturing facility of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting in Hyderabad.

Stating that Wipro is pro-active, Premji said the group will continue to support Telangana in terms of investment and creating employment opportunities, especially for women as "we find women to be extraordinarily committed".

He said there was complete disruption of life during the Covid-19 pandemic when many poor were compelled to take loans at high rates of interest. He then suggested the Telangana government to work with the banking and non-banking institutions to subsidise the loans taken by the poor.

He also praised Telangana for its handling of the Covid crisis, saying that the state has by and large contributed significantly towards managing the pandemic.

Premji along with Telangana Minister for Industries and Information Technology, K.T. Rama Rao, inaugurated the facility at Maheshwaram.

The company has invested Rs 300 crore to set up the facility and is creating direct and indirect employment for about 900 people, with over 90 per cent of employment opportunities for the locals.

The facility, which has come up on 30 acres of land, produces Santoor soaps and Softouch fabric conditioners. It will add manufacturing capability to produce Yardley talcum powder, Santoor handwash and Giffy dishwash.

It has invested in a state-of-the-art soap finishing line that runs at the highest speed of 700 soaps per minute. In addition, the company has four more soap finishing lines.

Rama Rao requested Premji to set up Wipro's proposed facility of manufacturing LED lights in Telangana, stating that the state has a dedicated LED park.

The minister also urged Premji to consider setting up a private university in Telangana to encourage social sciences. He pointed out that Telangana has already enacted a private university legislation.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, said Telangana approved investment proposals worth over Rs 2.20 lakh crore during the last seven-and-a-half years under its unique industrial policy, TSiPASS. This is expected to create over 16 lakh jobs.

The minister said that under this self-certification policy, an investor can start working on a project without any approvals with a mere online application.

"You will get all the approvals in 15 days. If you don't get the approval in 15 days, it's deemed approved on the 16th day. No other state in the country has this policy," he said.

KTR noted that the Azim Premji Foundation was the single largest contributor to Telangana during the Covid pandemic as it provided healthcare relief worth Rs 25 crore, another Rs 12 crore for vaccination efforts and also gave Rs 44 crore to various NGOs working to provide relief to the people.

Telangana's Education Minister Sabitha Indira Reddy, Principal Secretary, Industries Commerce & Information Technology, Jayesh Ranjan, and CEO of Wipro Consumer Care, Vineet Agrawal, were also present on the occasion.