HYDERABAD: On Friday, when Kitex Group chairman and managing director Sabu M Jacob boarded the private jet chartered by Telangana government to fly him to Hyderabad, he had absolutely no idea that hours later he would be announcing an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in Telangana.
Jacob, who said he was kicked out of Kerala but was being wooed by nine states, told TOI that he was so impressed with the commitment and proactive approach of the Telangana government, particularly industries minister KT Rama Rao (KTR), that he felt confident enough to take a call, within hours, on bringing his investment to Telangana.
“I expected a politician… but it felt like a business meeting with the CEO of a state. Whatever technical or practical issues we discussed, he understood. Because of that my confidence level went up. Otherwise we never take a risk of committing 1000 crore within eight hours of our visit. I’m sure I’m not taking a risk because I am not dealing with a politician,” he said.
What also floored him was that KTR understood they had offers from various states and assured them whatever offers they had, Telangana would “meet” and “beat” them. This, Jacob said, was in stark contrast to his experience in his home state, where he alleged harassment that forced him to withdraw his 3,500 crore investment plan.
“I had a lot of discussions in Kerala with the industries minister and other ministers but the problem is they are big zeroes. They don’t understand anything about business or investor problems,” said Jacob shaking his head in exasperation. So impressed was the top boss of the world’s second largest children’s garments manufacturer that he is also looking at Chandanvelly, where Welspun has its facilities, for a facility.
“We are looking at both Kakatiya Mega Textile Park and Chandanvelly. Out of our $360 million project we have only confirmed the phase-1 investment of 1000 crore at KMTP. Once we finalise everything, we will decide whether we will set up only in one location or two. It will take another couple of weeks to finalise and we hope to sign the MoU by month end,” he said.
Jacob said his only concern was availability of adequate manpower for which he is working closely with the Telangana government. Kitex, which employs around 15,000 people in Kerala, makes apparel for kids aged 0-24 months for exports to US.
Apart from states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, over the weekend Jacob also saw newly appointed Union minister of state for the ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY), Rajeev Chandrasekhar invite him to set up shop in his adopted state of Karnataka.
