Karnataka job reservation proposal might become a booster for Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi-NCR

The Karnataka reservation bill, now put on hold, could become a booster for other IT cities like Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi-NCR due to more investor-friendly employment policies, reported TOI.

Telangana might become the state that benefits the most as it offers incentive-based employer policies, while Hyderabad has been in tough competition with India's start-up capital, Bengaluru. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government’s new reservation demands for locals in Karnataka might lead to flight risks by several investors currently based in India’s Silicon Valley.

“All the GCC movement is in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Future growth will start moving to competing cities like Hyderabad and even Pune and Delhi NCR,” said a top executive official of a global financial services giant to TOI. Moreover, though HYSEA president Prashant Nandella told TOI it is still too early to speculate, he believes such a policy might benefit pro-industry states such as Telangana. In addition, former CII Telangana Vagish Dixit told TOI that investors have a choice to move and might fly to other states as a result of such counterproductive policies.


On the other hand, the uproar on social media indicates that netizens also hold a similar view. Users on X suggest that cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gurgaon will get the centre-stage of investors if the bill gets passed in Karnataka.

The Karnataka State Employment of Local Industries Factories Establishment Bill, 2024 proposes 50 percent job reservation in managerial positions and 70 per cent quota in non-managerial positions for local candidates in the state. After the uproar, the chief minister on a post on X said that the bill had been put on hold until further review.