The fund will be used to create a modular plug-and-play specialised infrastructure for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices industry. (Reuters)

The Telangana government has proposed to set up a Life Sciences Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, said to be a first-of-its-kind in the country. The fund will be used to create a modular plug-and-play specialised infrastructure for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices industry. An MoU with Cerestra Advisors, a private equity firm, has been signed towards this end. The PE fund has already bought Alexandria Knowledge Park in Hyderabad for about Rs 400 crore to build an office portfolio on R&D clients. The Knowledge Park houses large tenants such as Novartis, Vimta Labs, Bharat Biotech, Biological E, Lonza among others. “Given that global life sciences companies are increasingly preferring asset light operations and resorting to long term leases in facilities built to their standards, we decided to set up a Life Sciences Infrastructure Fund which will be the first of its kind in the country,” KT Rama Rao, minister for industries and commerce and IT said.

The state has also proposed a Pharma City and the phase-1 is being developed across 8,200 acres, with 6,300 acres of land already under the possession of Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (TSIIC) and acquisition of the remaining land is expected to be completed shortly. Some of the companies which have invested in the state include Genesis Biologics, Alembic Pharma, Farmex, Ferring Laboratories, TS Veterinary Biological, among others. Meanwhile, Telangana state’s gross state domestic product (GSDP), grew at 10.1% at constant prices during the last financial year to Rs 5.11 lakh crore as against 9.5% in FY16.

“Telangana has achieved a 10.1% y-o-y growth in GSDP, compared to a national average of 7.1% y-o-y growth in 2016-17 and the share of Telangana’s economy in national GDP has increased seven basis points in 2016-17,” Rao said after releasing the annual report of the industries and commerce department. The state has generated Rs 73,000 crore in investments and created 2.56 lakh jobs in the process, after the state government started the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-IPASS) in 2015.

Further, the state is also setting up ‘Telangana Industrial health Clinic’ (TIHCL), a new financial initiative specially focussed for the growth of MSMEs and revival of sick units. It is being set up with support from TSIDC with a corpus fund of `100 crore of which the state government will be contributing `10 crore, the central government is expected to provide a grant-in-aid support of Rs 50 crore and the rest through banks and financial institutions. The fund will operate as a fintech company and will handhold enterprises to ward off the compliance risks for the partnering commercial banks.