From Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jul 15: In a massive investment drive for industrial projects in the state, Karnataka has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with more than 20 companies spread across various sectors, including electric vehicles, data centres, aerospace and defence to attract investments worth Rs 28,000 crore and generate 15,000 direct employment opportunities.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the state government has cleared more than 520 projects of industries with a total investment of Rs 77,000 crore spanning multiple sectors.
“This marks the strong commitment of investors despite the challenging Covid-19 scenario to select Karnataka as an investment destination,” chief minister B S Yediyurappa said during the signing of the MoUs at the Invest Karnataka Conclave in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Karnataka has amassed Rs 28,600 crore worth of investments in the last six months in the form of MoUs and investment proposals.
Some of the leading investments in today’s Invest Karnataka event included Rs 4,015 crore MoU with C4V, a leading US-based Li-ion Cell manufacturer, Rs 2,250 crore MoU with LNG Alliance, a Singapore based LNG terminal operator, Rs 5,000 crore MoU with Adani data centres to set up data centres in Karnataka, large and medium industries minister, Jagadish Shettar said.
"We want to retain Karnataka’s position as a global manufacturing hub and place Karnataka on the global manufacturing value chain. Hence, Karnataka has been actively working to promote tier-2 and tier-3 regions of the state by developing multiple sector-specific clusters. We have developed dedicated clusters for Toys in Koppal, consumer electronics in Dharwad, Pharmaceuticals in Yadgir, to name a few,” Jagadish Shettar, large and medium industries minister, said during the signing of the MoU.
Commenting on the much-anticipated Global Investors Meet, Shettar said the state cabinet has approved the 'Invest Karnataka 2022' summit and will be held for three days from February 9 to 11, 2022.
Promoting the economic and industrial development of the state has always been a top priority for the government. Keeping the investor-centric approach, our government has launched the New Industrial Policy 2020-2025 to build a prosperous Karnataka and create large-scale employment opportunities.
This Industrial Policy is very forward-looking and brings several incentives and regulatory reforms such as land access and labour market regulation, he explained.
"The recent 2020 NITI Aayog 2019 Innovation Index has Karnataka at the top. This has been possible due to the availability of quality human resources, reputed higher educational institutions, and a significant thrust on research and development aided by a proactive administration and conducive investment climate,’’ he explained.
The event was attended by Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister, Raj Kumar Khatri, additional chief secretary, commerce and industries, commissioner for industrial development, Dr N Shivashankar, CEO, Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, Gunjan Krishna, commissioner for industrial development and director, department of industries and commerce.
The Conclave also marked the presence of several industry leaders, including Shailesh Upreti, CEO of C4V, Muthu Chezhian, Global CEO, LNG Alliance, Sanjay Bhutani, data centre business head, Adani, Sanjay Mehta, president, Commercial, Shree Cements.