The Government of Karnataka and FICCI, jointly hosted an ‘Invest Karnataka Road show’ on Wednesday at Taj Deccan. Mr Jagadish Shettar, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, Government of Karnataka and Mr Pralhad Joshi, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India; Mr Gaurav Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce Department, Government of Karnataka; Mr Murali K Reddy, Co-Chair FICCI Telangana Slate Council Chairman; Mr Ullas Kamath, Chairman, FICCI Karnataka State Council; Mr Sudhakar Gande, Vice Chairman, Axiscades Engineering Technologies & Mr Anil Kumar Muniswamy, Managing Director. SLN Technologies; participated in the Road show.
Speaking on the occasion Mr Pralhad Joshi said, Karnataka has the most industry friendly policy with several advantages. Everywhere Karnataka reminds of Bangalore alone and people are ignorant of the other parts of the state and investors too always focused on Bangalore. By the day Bangalore is becoming congested, despite the Government’s best efforts for de-congestion, not in a position to find much relief. There is need to develop the tier 2 and 3 cities too in Karnataka. With that objective, we want to initiate measures to encourage investments and industries beyond Bangalore. But this industrialization will be done while balancing with the environment. Around 1960s the contribution of Agriculture to the GDP of the country was 60%, but today it’s just 14- 15%. It’s not because agriculture is ignored, Agriculture has the same priority but the other sectors have grown and population has increased, while cultivable land has become less. In the process agriculture has become unviable, as the number of dependants on that land has increased. Keeping that in the mind, though the priority is farmer and agriculture, not everyone in the family can depend on agriculture. Therefore there is need to grow the trade and industry sectors too. For that to happen, there should be industrial friendly atmosphere, which can enable growth of alternate employment and make it possible for the family to earn from agriculture and gain additional income from others sources to fulfill the family’s needs. Due to the limitations of Bangalore city, we are focusing on tier 2 cities, especially in Northern Karnataka and are hosting Invest Karnataka Meet at Hubli- Dharwad, the second largest city after Bangalore in Karnataka, on February 14th, 2020. We have built very good infrastructure in this area including air, rail and road connectivity, educational institutions of repute are located here. Karnataka is power surplus and the country’s largest solar plant has come up in Karnataka at Pavgad. Also the Central and State Governments are ruled by the same political party and have provided a conducive investment environment. Karnataka is also the leading state for Start-ups too. Also the state has accessible Industry minister and officials who will help remove any hurdles you face.
Mr Jagadish Shettar said, Karnataka is a $260 bn economy and growing at the rate of 9.6% per annum, with the lowest unemployment rate in India. Our focus is to have infrastructure on par with the best globally. We recently launched the Invest Karnataka Global Investors Meet initiative at Davos, which will be hosted at Bangalore from November 3 to 5, 2020. Also for the first time the Investors meet is being held in Hubli on February 14th, 2020, primarily with the objective of enhancing the Industrial atmosphere in such cities and also to attract investors to tier 2 and 3 cities in Karnataka. This will showcase the strengths of North Karnataka and Hubli Dharwad regions. North Karnataka has a robust infrastructure and conducive environment for Industrial development. 5400 acres of land is available in North Karnataka and 3000 acres of land will be acquired for Industrial purposes, near Huble- Dharwad. With access to 5 airports North Karnataka is connected to 20 major cities. The government has identified certain focus sectors like aero-space, defense equipment, auto and electrical vehicles, consumer good production, IT and Agri business to generate jobs across the state and particularly in North Karnataka. Our new industrial policy will further create opportunities and encourage the participation of the private sector. This will encourage industrialists to invest in Hubli Dharwad region. Me and our Chief Minister recently participated in the Davos economic forum, around 40 big industrialists and global investors met us, got a proactive and positive response from the delegates there. We discussed about investments in tier 2 and 3 cities and got a very positive response from them. Our Chief Minister to convenience the investors, recently announced if purchase of land permission is given, with in thirty days it has to be cleared if not it will become deemed permission.
Karnataka over the years has established itself as a major Industrial hub in the country. To keep the momentum on and give further fillip to its initiatives, the State Government is hosting the Road show. With this event, Karnataka aims at showcase the opportunities for business and commercial activities and attract global investments with focus towards socio-economic development and employment generation in the region. The Invest Karnataka event witnessed participation of over 500 senior delegates across the focus sectors of Aerospace and Defense, Industry 4.0, Innovation and Start-ups, Automobile, Consumer Products, Agri & Food Processing and Textiles. The officials from the Government shared valuable information on Karnataka’s conducive industrial ecosystem, proactive steps being taken by the State Government and the ease of doing business in Karnataka, with the delegates and fellow industry members.
