Karnataka is to showcase investment opportunities in the state outside of Bengaluru, its capital to global and Indian firms at a three-day invest in Karnataka summit to begin on February 3.
The state's push comes at a time when industry leaders in Bengaluru are up in arms over infrastructure woes such as lack of adequate public transport and power cuts that hurts productivity and cost over runs. It also is witnessing increased competition from neighbouring states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, who are pushing for investments in their respective states.
"Every state has to compete for investments. We have an advantage over others - our human resources. No other state provides the ecosystem that Karnataka offers for global investors," says R V Deshpande, Karnataka's industries minister, who is driving the investment initiative.
Deshpande, as industries minister in the S M Krishna cabinet steered in 2000 Karnataka's first global investors meet just at a time when Nara Chandra Babu Naidu was stealing the thunder for Hyderabad, positioning the Andhra Pradesh capital as "Cyberabad," an alternate to Bengaluru.
As global technology firms expanded in Bengaluru, the city cemented its position as the tech hub, while transitioning from becoming the country's startup hub. In recent months, Karnataka has been at logger heads with global e-commerce behemoth Amazon on tax issues and Uber, the ride hailing app on complying with motor vehicle rules in the state. But the biggest challenge has been the concerns over power and traffic.
"There needs to be quick resolution to the power crisis," Bosch India managing director Steffen Berns told Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah at an event organised for Invest Karnataka early this month. Bosch has four factories in Bengaluru with nearly two thirds of its over Rs 20,000 crore investment in recent years in the state, but finds each factory has to shut a day off due to staggered blackouts by the power utility. Karnataka, which has a significant power generation from hydel plants expect the power situation to ease by July.
Deshpande admits that concerns of investors such as Bosch, who have a significant presence in the city for over six decades are genuine and efforts are being made to address them, in collaboration with the industry representatives.
Karnataka has listed 117 infrastructure projects in nine sectors, including roads, railways, airports, ports, energy and water and expects an investment commitment of over Rs one lakh crore. While Siddaramaiah is aggressive in pushing for the Invest Karnataka, he is also battling dissent from his own party men in the event.
The state's push comes at a time when industry leaders in Bengaluru are up in arms over infrastructure woes such as lack of adequate public transport and power cuts that hurts productivity and cost over runs. It also is witnessing increased competition from neighbouring states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, who are pushing for investments in their respective states.
"Every state has to compete for investments. We have an advantage over others - our human resources. No other state provides the ecosystem that Karnataka offers for global investors," says R V Deshpande, Karnataka's industries minister, who is driving the investment initiative.
Deshpande, as industries minister in the S M Krishna cabinet steered in 2000 Karnataka's first global investors meet just at a time when Nara Chandra Babu Naidu was stealing the thunder for Hyderabad, positioning the Andhra Pradesh capital as "Cyberabad," an alternate to Bengaluru.
As global technology firms expanded in Bengaluru, the city cemented its position as the tech hub, while transitioning from becoming the country's startup hub. In recent months, Karnataka has been at logger heads with global e-commerce behemoth Amazon on tax issues and Uber, the ride hailing app on complying with motor vehicle rules in the state. But the biggest challenge has been the concerns over power and traffic.
"There needs to be quick resolution to the power crisis," Bosch India managing director Steffen Berns told Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah at an event organised for Invest Karnataka early this month. Bosch has four factories in Bengaluru with nearly two thirds of its over Rs 20,000 crore investment in recent years in the state, but finds each factory has to shut a day off due to staggered blackouts by the power utility. Karnataka, which has a significant power generation from hydel plants expect the power situation to ease by July.
Deshpande admits that concerns of investors such as Bosch, who have a significant presence in the city for over six decades are genuine and efforts are being made to address them, in collaboration with the industry representatives.
Karnataka has listed 117 infrastructure projects in nine sectors, including roads, railways, airports, ports, energy and water and expects an investment commitment of over Rs one lakh crore. While Siddaramaiah is aggressive in pushing for the Invest Karnataka, he is also battling dissent from his own party men in the event.
"There is a fatigue that has set in. The government should focus on infrastructure and the investment would come in," says a legislator from Bengaluru, who did not want to be named.