Karnataka dangles hard cash to woo investors

Looking to stave off competition from states like Gujarat and Maharashtra by reducing costs on new projects, Karnataka is set to offer hard cash to foreign investors prepared to make investments outside Bangalore. “We will do all that is necessary to attract foreign investment. I have decided to visit foreign countries once every three months to bring in funds,’’ state chief minister B S Yeddyurappa said. State minister for large and medium scale industries, Murugesh R Nirani, talked about the various incentive programmes offered by the government to attract at least $42 billion (Rs 2 lakh crore) investments in the next few months. “We will pay the cost of hiring unskilled workers for the first three years of operation of any new company,’’ Nirani said. The decision has been taken in principal by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and will soon be announced formally. The move comes on the heels of Gujarat holding its global investors meet and launching a massive drive to lure foreign investments. Karnataka will also offer to cash to any company that invests Rs 50 crore or more. It will give Rs 2 crore to the first two companies investing in a taluka. “The idea is to spread investments across all the 170 talukas of the state,’’ Nirani said. Yeddyurappa and his team are on a visit to Beijing and Shanghai to attract Chinese investors to put up plants in exclusive industrial zones for sectors like steel, cement, automobile, power and information technology. He is also inviting them to attend a global investors meet in Bangalore in January. Karnataka has apparently learnt a lesson from Gujarat’s success in grabbing the Tata Nano project.