A group of mobile phone manufacturers have come forward to set up a manufacturing hub in the city. A delegation of senior executives from mobile phone manufacturing headed by Indian Cellular Association president Pankaj Mohindroo met Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday after visiting a proposed site on the outskirts of the city. According to the chief minister's office, Rao has sought a detailed project report with a list of requirements apart from land so that the government can provide infrastructure and other support. The project is expected to generate 1,50,000 -2,00,000 jobs. Karbonn Mobiles Chairman Sudhir Hasija, Foxconn India managing director Josh Foulger and Celkon managing director Y Guru, among others, were present in the meeting. “The state government and the have entered into a broad understanding to set up the country's first mobile phone manufacturing hub in Hyderabad," the chief minister's office said in a statement. Govt aims to double IT exports by 2019 The Telangana government is in the process of finalising a fresh information technology (IT) policy, with initiatives to tap new areas of technology while aiming to double IT exports to Rs 1.2 lakh crore by 2019.

Releasing a report on the Hyderabad IT sector performance on Tuesday, state IT minister K T Rama Rao said the government would tap investments into new areas including data analytics, cyber security, phtonics, internet of things and drones among other things. The government is also working on promoting the electronic hardware clusters by attracting mobile phone manufacturers, solar panel and chip makers to set up their operations in the state, he said. The government would develop IT clusters in several places around the city in addition to the existing hubs, according to him. The IT sector exports grew 15.7 per cent at Rs 66,276 crore from Hyderabad in 2014-15 against Rs 57,258 crore in the previous year. About 48,000 new jobs were created during the period, according to the report.

Explaining about the future initiatives, the minister said Hyderabad would be developed as a start-up hub of the country while taping the venture capital and knowledge resources of the Silicon Valley in the United States of America. The government would start the country's largest start-up incubator in the next 15-20 days in the presence of Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, he said.

Some of the major initiatives undertook by the IT department in the first one year include, creation of two electronic manufacturing clusters of 900 acres each, formation of T-Hub-an incubation facility with a total built up area of 3 million square feet and making 60,000 square feet operational this month, launching of Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge(TASK) with an aim to make college phase-outs employable, according to the officials.