Vision groups to be formed across 7 sectors to promote industrial growth: Min M B Patil

The Karnataka government will constitute new vision groups across seven sectors to promote industrial development, State’s Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil has said.

He said this while speaking at a meeting held here on Monday evening with leading industrialists to exchange ideas on promoting industrial growth in the state. The proposed vision groups will span the sectors of Aerospace & Defense, Machine Tools, Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM), Core Manufacturing, Pharma, Startups (non-IT), and Auto/EV.

The vision groups will comprise industry experts, public sector officials and academic experts. These groups will be institutionalised and will provide holistic guidance to the department and lead industrial progress in the right direction, the Minister noted. The government also intends to promote manufacturing and industrialisation in sectors such as future mobility, green hydrogen, food processing, textiles, and warehousing & logistics, he was quoted as saying by his office in a release. Listing opportunities for green hydrogen, Patil said the state has already attracted commitments worth about Rs 2.8 lakh crore from interested players.

The first green hydrogen cluster of the country cluster would come up in Mangaluru, he said adding that the required infrastructure including land, and water will be facilitated, and incentives will be extended as per norms. The government is planning to set up a Karnataka Aerospace Technology Centre at Devanahalli R&D park to ease information dissemination, enable networks and market linkages and create Common Facility Centre (CFC) and incubation centres. Intensive efforts are under way to pursue opportunities worth approximately Rs. 2.5 Lakh Crores, he claimed.

An IFS (Indian Forest Service) officer of PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) grade will be appointed within the department to facilitate resolution of environment-related issues, Patil said, as he also shared his experience on how such issues were successfully resolved by appointing a PCCF-grade official in the irrigation department while he worked as the minister of that department during 2013-18.

He assured that the government would always consider the opinions and suggestions of industrialists with open-mindedness and ensure maintaining industry friendliness. Foreign embassy officials of several countries, Geetanjali Kirloskar (Toyota Kirloskar), Sushant Naik (Tata Motors), Rajiv Khushu (Texas Instruments), Vincent (Foxconn), and Amit Kumar Singh (Asian paints) were among representatives of over 30 industries who were present. Also, representatives of industry bodies organisations such as CII, FICCI, FKCCI, AWAKE, and KASSIA also attended the meeting, the release said.