Davos: Asserting that there is a huge interest in Karnataka government’s ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ campaign, the state’s senior minister MB Patil on Tuesday, January 20, said his government is developing several other cities to attract investment.
Speaking to PTI during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Patil said Karnataka is one of the most progressive states of the country, and the work started way back in the year 2000 under the leadership of the then chief minister SM Krishna, when Bengaluru was developed as the IT capital of the country.
The minister recalled that the state has had a strong ecosystem since the pre-Independence era and has been home to iconic organisations like ISRO, Indian Institute of Science, BHEL, HAL and HMT.
“We are also pioneers in professional colleges, and until the last three decades, there were not many engineering colleges in other states in India,” he said.
“It is our state from where IT giants like Infosys and Wipro emerged. And now, we are not just an IT capital, we are the biotechnology capital, the machine tools capital, the capital for aerospace and defence, and now the startup capital.”
If one takes the global Fortune 500 companies, 400-plus Fortune companies have their base in Bangalore, he said.
“Here in Davos, we talk a lot about sustainability; we have an incentive for sustainability in our industrial policy. For example, if your manufacturing is green, it has some unique initiatives, sustainable initiatives, and you get an incentive. So, we are truly global. So, we compete with the world in a way,” he said.
He said Karnataka doesn’t believe in signing unrealistic MoUs that are only on paper, and it focuses on real investments.
“Last year, at our global investors summit, we signed deals worth Rs 10.27 lakh crore and more than half of that has already been realised in less than a year,” Patil said.
Nearly 70 per cent of those investments were part of the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ campaign, which promotes investments in various parts of the state, he added.
He said the state government is focusing a lot on infrastructure development in other cities.
“Airports, rail networks, industrial parks and a lot more are coming up in other cities to make them as good as Bengaluru,” he added.
“If you go beyond Bengaluru, there are a lot of incentives that investors and developers get.”
He said Karnataka is a very diverse state, it is dynamic, cosmopolitan and a peace-loving state and also has a great climate.
Asked how many Bengalurus the state can create, the minister said there is a huge potential in many cities, including Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum, and Kalburgi.
Areas around Bangaluru, such as Kolar, Chikkaballapur, and Tumkur, also have great potential, he added.
Many of these cities already have big industries, manufacturing parks and good infrastructure, and are also being looked into by new investors, including for data centres.
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