Bangalore, Oct 22 (IANS): The Karnataka government will allot land to IT companies outside Bangalore in tier-two cities across the state in proportion to jobs they would generate, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Tuesday.
"Under the new IT policy, land allotment will be linked to employment generation in tier-two cities across the state, with one acre of land for every 1,000 jobs on long-term lease at concessional rate," Siddaramaiah declared at a technology trade event here.
The Employment-Linked Incentive for Land Allotment (E-LILA) will be applicable only outside Bangalore urban and rural limits in a bid to decongest the grid-locked tech hub.
Announcing the new policy titled '4 Is', -- Information Technology, IT-enabled Services, Innovation and Incentives, at the inaugural of the three-day Bangalore ITE.biz, the chief minister said the policy had been revised to include telecom sector and to position Bangalore as a innovation hub with thrust on research and development.
"This incentive will be available only to direct end-users and not to real estate developers. A prospective company should give jobs for 1,000 people, with a salary of Rs.10,000 per month to each employee," the chief minister said.
Existing firms in a particular district, however, will not be entitled to avail of the incentive for a new facility in the same district.
A company to which land is allotted will have to give a bank guarantee that can be invoked upon failure to fulfill the employment conditions.
"The quantum of subsidy will be capped at Rs.60,000 one time for each such employment created," according to the policy.
Noting that the policy was meant to reposition Bangalore and Karnataka as the preferred global investment destination in the knowledge sector, Siddaramaiah said the focus on newer areas of knowledge and innovation-based industries would be start-ups, electronic systems design & manufacturing, animation and graphics.
"By 2020, Bangalore will overtake the Silicon Valley in the US to become the largest IT cluster with two million direct and six million indirect jobs from being the second largest IT cluster with 900,000 direct and 2.7 million indirect employment," the chief minister asserted.