Saudis urged to invest in new Indian state

Saudi businesspeople should invest in the newly created Telangana state in south India because there is a wide range of opportunities in education, health and information technology, a visiting politician has urged.
Mohammed Mahmood Ali, the deputy chief minister of Telangana, announced on Thursday a series of measures and incentives to facilitate the entry of the Kingdom’s investors.
“On behalf of my government, which is led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, I assure Saudis of the full protection of their investments,” he told Arab News during his visit to the newspaper’s office. He is in the Kingdom to perform Haj.
“The erstwhile rulers of Telangana, whose capital is the famous Indian city of Hyderabad, had the best of ties with Saudi Arabia,” he said, referring to the Nizams who ruled the cash-rich state for nearly 400 years. “Our government wants to revive those ties in an effort to regain the golden glory of the past.”
He said his government is in the process of creating special economic zones to attract foreign direct investment, especially from Saudi Arabia. “India is a rising power and the whole world is looking at us with awe,” he said. “Now is the time for Saudis to come in, and invest in many sectors.”
He said Saudis can invest in infrastructure development, education, health and information technology. “They can come and build hospitals and colleges, and set up IT and service centers for their industries,” he said.
“We are a new state with good infrastructure. We are rich in minerals. Our white polished granite or white marble is famous all over the world. Hyderabad is an IT hub, it has an international airport, and we are in the process of setting up two more international airports in different districts.”
He said the mere mention of Hyderabad rekindles old memories for Saudis. “This is a result of our historic ties,” he said. “The Nizams ran a number of welfare activities in the 1930s and 1940s in Makkah and Madinah. The rest houses, popularly called as rubaat, were set up for pilgrims by the Nizams. Our ties are rooted in history and we want to take them to a new level.”
Mahmood Ali said the creation of the new state has empowered Muslims. “Within months of taking over, our government raised the annual budgetary outlay for Muslims to 1,000 crore Indian rupees (SR610 million) from a mere 380 crore rupees (SR23 million) in the united state of Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Muslims make up 15 percent of the new state’s population.
“I was true to the cause of Telangana and I believed that the creation of the new state would be in the best interests of our people,” he said. “In a united state we were getting a raw deal. I worked closely with Chandrashekar Rao and his party, the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS). Chandrashekar Rao is a good man, a secular man. He is a friend of Muslims. And we want to do all that we can for the benefit of every single person of the state, irrespective of his caste and religion.”
He said in a bid to restore the confidence of Muslims, his government has ordered that police from other Indian states cannot arbitrarily arrest Muslim youngsters on the basis of false charges and reports.
“Now they cannot come and arrest anybody like that,” he said. “They will have to come to the government and we will do the investigation.”
Mahmood Ali said his ruling party has the tacit understanding with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), the party that has near-total political sway over the state’s capital with seven members of assembly. “They are with us and we have very good ties with MIM President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi,” he said.
He said secularism remains the cornerstone of the country. “Secularism has been our guiding principle and India takes pride in being the place of so many religions and castes. Muslims should join the mainstream and it is important to arm them with all the modern tools of education,” he said. “We are doing that is our state.”
Except for Kashmir, Telangana is the only state where a Muslim holds such a high legislative post.
“Nowhere in the country is there a Muslim deputy chief minister, as we speak,” he said. “This is only in Telangana because we are secular people, and we have had a great example of the pluralistic rule of the Nizams.”
He promised to create a new ministry for the non-resident Indians from Telangana on the lines of a similar ministry in Kerala. He also said Urdu would be accorded a key role in the state’s administration.
“We need everyone’s prayers,” he said. “On Oct. 3, on the plains of Arafat, near Makkah, I will pray for the well-being of my country, my state and my people.”