Karnataka offers sector-specific incentives for investors

The industries department of Karnataka, which is holding a global investor summit early next month, has met representatives of 17 companies, including L&T, Mahindra, Hinduja Group, as part of a roadshow and offered them sector-specific incentives.

The state is expecting over Rs 5 lakh crore investments from the summit and has set a target of generating 5 lakh jobs through this.

“We’ve met top officials of 17 large companies on the sidelines of the roadshow for the global investor summit which is being held November 2-4 in Bengaluru, E V Ramana Reddy, additional chief secretary for industry and commerce, told PTI here.

Other companies included Everest Industries, K Raheja Corp, Anarock group, Colliers India, Somaiya group, Avaada Energy, DMart, Mega Power & Engineers, Ennar group, Jubliant Organosys, Epsilon Carbon, and Waaree group, he said.

When asked about offers for investors, he said they have custom-made incentives for each sector in general, more sops for ultra large investments which are considered to be over Rs 1,000 crore, and large investors which are those coming in with Rs 500 crore capex proposals.

However, when asked why should a company invest money and resources in a state that of late has become communally most volatile in the south, Reddy refused an answer saying that’s a political question.

Addressing the roadshow, Gunjan Krishna, the industries and commerce commissioner, said the forthcoming summit will have at least 5,000 delegates including political and industry leaders.

She said Karnataka, which has been topping the ease of doing business ranking of Niti Aayog for the past three years, is the preferred destination for investments in the manufacturing and sustainability sectors.

“We are committed to facilitating further ease of doing business and shall provide all support and infrastructure facilities to investors,” she said, adding that the investor will get all 15 key approvals from a single window.

With over USD 22 billion, Karnataka topped the FDI chart with as much as 38 per cent of all foreign direct investment in FY22, way ahead of the traditional topper Maharashtra which could get only USD 15 billion.

Reddy said the state has already earmarked as much as 50,000 acres (20,000 acres in Bengaluru and 30,000 acres across the state) for investments coming through the global investor summit and “we are expecting over Rs 5 lakh crore investments and 5 lakh jobs through the summit”.

The state has already held international roadshows in Japan, Korea, the US, and Europe. Around 5,000 delegates are expected to participate in the summit, Reddy said.

Krishna said Karnataka has the third highest GSDP in the country at Rs 17.3 Lakh crore in FY21, growing at 7.2 per cent in the pandemic-struck year, making it the best performing state, and 9.5 per cent in FY22.

The state’s economy, if compared to a country, is as large as that of Vietnam and its share in national GDP was 8.8 per cent with only under 5 per cent of the national population, Krishna said.

The state has the highest share of services in the gross state value added at 66.1 per cent in FY22, which is the highest among all states, and has produced 10 per cent of the formal jobs in the country.

She said Karnataka is also the fourth largest global tech cluster and fourth largest pool of global skilled workforce in the world.

That apart, it is the second largest tech cluster system in the world after the Silicon Valley in the US and the eighth largest startup ecosystem in the world and contributes 40 per cent of national software exports, she added.