Policy catalyst pays off: Karnataka tops in investment proposals, says Industries Minister

BENGALURU: Karnataka has topped the states with a ticket size of 1,54,937 crore in proposed industrial investments in the April-December period, industries minister Jagadish Shettar said on Tuesday. The state remained the most preferred choice for investors regardless of the challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic, he said, after releasing the industrial policy booklet.

The state high-level single-window clearance committee, headed by chief minister BS Yediyurappa, has approved 410 new investment proposals in the August-December period. These alone made up 82,015 crore in proposed investments, promising 2,27,147 in potential new jobs, Shettar said. A slew of recent policy measures such as reforms in land and labour laws, auto-renewal of clearances and licences, and other ease-of-doing-business initiatives have accelerated the flow of investments into Karnataka, the minister said. The recent 2019 Niti Aayog 2019 Innovation Index also had Karnataka at the top.

He hoped that the new industrial policy will enable the state to look beyond Bengaluru and develop tier-2 and tier-3 cities as the engines of economic growth.


The state government may soon decide on developing new industrial townships, which has been a long-standing demand of industry bodies. “There are 5-6 proposals for industrial townships, which will be placed before the Cabinet for a view,” he said.

As for the recent incidents of labour unrest in Wistron facility in Narasapura and Toyota plant in Bidadi, Shettar said, the issues had been resolved and the Wistron facility will resume operations soon. “We are a peaceful state and we support industries,” he iterated.

Additional chief secretary, industries, Gaurav Gupta hoped that the government’s initiative to develop manufacturing clusters could speed up the industrial growth. “Karnataka was the first state to create sector-specific clusters to attract capital. The state government is restoring the toy, textile, agricultural implements, ESDM, FMCG, and wellness cluster,” he said.

Industrial development commissioner Gunjan Krishna said the new industrial policy would offer special packages as well as discounts to ultra and super mega industries in view of their potential to add jobs in large numbers.