Telangana’s bid to position itself as a global investment destination gathered momentum at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, with multinational companies and foreign governments signalling interest across sectors ranging from IT services and artificial intelligence to infrastructure and skills development.
FMCG major Unilever is exploring the possibility of setting up a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Hyderabad, PTI reported.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who is leading the state government’s delegation, met Willem Uijen, Unilever’s chief supply chain and operations officer. During the meeting, Reddy highlighted Hyderabad’s emergence as a hub for global capability centres, following which Uijen said the company would be “happy to explore” a GCC in the city, according to the PTI report.
State IT and industries minister D. Sridhar Babu said Hyderabad already hosts GCCs of several FMCG companies, including McDonald’s, Heineken and Costco.
UAE to partner on Bharat Future City
According to the PTI report, the Telangana government also said the United Arab Emirates would partner with the state in developing the proposed Bharat Future City on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri met the Telangana delegation to discuss potential cooperation in large infrastructure projects, with a focus on Bharat Future City. Reddy outlined the state’s ‘Telangana Rising 2047’ vision and a roadmap to transform Telangana into a $3 trillion economy by 2047.
Global companies such as Japan’s Marubeni and Singapore-based Sembcorp are already on board the project, the government said. Touq Al Marri, a key figure in the UAE’s economic diversification push, indicated that his government would be willing to collaborate with Telangana.
Google keen on agriculture, climate tech
Alphabet-owned Google has expressed interest in partnering with Telangana on agriculture and climate change-related initiatives, the PTI report added.
During a meeting with Google’s Asia Pacific president, Sanjay Gupta, the chief minister outlined the state’s regional growth framework, Core Urban Region Economy (CURE), Peri-Urban Region Economy (PURE) and Rural Agriculture Region Economy (RARE), and plans to make core Hyderabad pollution-free.
Gupta is committed to Google’s support in areas such as traffic management, cybersecurity, agriculture, startups and climate change, according to PTI.
Philips explores AI tie-ups
The delegation presented the newly launched Telangana life sciences policy for 2026–30, which aims to scale the sector into a $250 billion economy by 2030.
The Telangana delegation also met the global leadership of Dutch health technology company Royal Philips. Jan Willem-Scheijgrond, vice-president and global head of government and public affairs at Philips, expressed interest in partnering with the state in the artificial intelligence space, PTI reported.
“As part of the state’s new economic development strategy under the Telangana Rising 2047 vision, the peri-urban region between the Outer Ring Road and the Regional Ring Road of Hyderabad is being developed for manufacturing and logistics,” Reddy was quoted as saying, as per PTI.
Saudi firm keen on skills university
Separately, Saudi-based industrial conglomerate Expertise has shown interest in partnering with the Young India Skills University (YISU). Mohammed Ashif, president and chief executive of Expertise, met the Revanth Reddy-led delegation and expressed strong interest in collaborating with the university to support skills development initiatives in Telangana, the government said.