Electronic manufacturers keen to invest Rs 36,804 crore in Karnataka: IT/BT Minister

Electronic manufacturers have shown interest to set up units in the state with big ticket investments adding up to about Rs 36,804 crore, IT/BT Minister CN Ashwath Narayan on Wednesday.

Karnataka is well placed to attract investments in the ESDM (electronics system design & manufacturing) sector, and the government is ready to support investors in line with the Make in India policy, he said speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, 2022. This is the silver jubilee of Karnataka’s flagship technology event.

The Minister said the government has set an ambitious target of achieving a target of $300 billion in IT and BT exports by 2025 from the present $135 billion.


Karnataka, he said, was emerging as a hub for semiconductor and chip design. He said the state had attracted investments worth Rs 22,900 crore in the semiconductor industry. ISMC Analog Fab has already issued an expression of interest in setting up a fab unit in the state. Besides, companies like Exide, Hitachi and Bosch among others have also submitted their investment proposals which have been approved.

India’s first and 100th unicorn start-up companies came from Bengaluru, the minister said, adding that the valuation of startups in Karnataka make up 55% of the total valuation of start-ups in the country.

Karnataka has more than 22,000 start-ups, a majority of which are in deep tech and artificial intelligence sectors contributing a lion’s share to the digital economy of the state, he said.

Karnataka is home to 20 plus soonicorns (soon to be unicorns), valued between $ 500 million to $ 1 billion. “These startups have received funding of over $3.5 billion in the last few years and we hope to see several of them achieve unicorn status shortly,” he said.

In IT exports, Karnataka exported April 2021– February 2022) software worth $ 90.82 billion which makes up 41% of national exports, far ahead of Maharashtra ($ 35.82 billion) which occupies the second place.