Hyderabad: The thrust areas of the Telangana government would be aerospace and defence as more companies are looking to set up their bases at Hyderabad in the backdrop of the state having the people with right skill sets, infrastructure, vendor base and a proactive government, said Praveen P A, Director, Aerospace and Defence, Government of Telangana.

With GMR Aerospace and Industrial Park, Adibatla, Hardware Park, the south of the city is becoming home to four to five clusters in these sectors, said Praveen.

Hyderabad will be a hub of aerospace and defence where all activities, including design, R&D and manufacturing will happen. The Government is having a multi-pronged approach with tie-ups with universities to set up need based education programmes, setting up of centres of excellence and promoting a lot of startups and related activities, he said while speaking at a round-table meeting organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) AP & TS on February 28.

The meeting was attended by 35 top executives comprising MDs, directors, CEOs and CFOs representing the aerospace, defence and allied sectors.

Shrikant Badiga, Chairman, IACC-AP & TS, said that aerospace and defence sectors play a very important role and to compliment and accelerate economy more industries need to come up. Hyderabad has a very good potential. Most international companies are looking at Hyderabad as a potential hub for setting up their facilities.

“With the encouragement and the positive policies of Telangana government, a huge eco-system of aerospace and defence sectors can be created in Hyderabad. There is a very investor-friendly environment in the city. IACC would coordinate with American companies to bring in a good number of them to develop a very positive ecosystem and further strengthen it,” Badiga added.