Advantage Karnataka

The stupendous growth in IT in the early years of the past decade catapulted Bangalore into the global league. Karnataka basked in that glory for a while. Unfortunately, unstable state governments lost the opportunity to build on it. But today, the mood is different. The government’s initiative to organize a Global Investors Meet and the seriousness with which the industry ministry has gone about organizing and wooing investors from around India and the world has impressed all. Today, at 10.30 am at the Bangalore Palace, some of the biggest names in industry will gather to sign MoUs with the government on projects they intend to set up in Karnataka. These include Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of the world’s biggest steel producer ArcelorMittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Azim Premji, Vijay Mallya, Sajjan Jindal, Shashi Ruia, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Venu Srinivasan and Venugopal Dhoot. It is said there would be 150 people, mostly investors, on the dais at the inaugural function, and more than 3,000 people attending the event. The government says that in the run-up to GIM, it has attracted over Rs 4 lakh crore of investment. More impressive is the fact that as much as 95% of those proposed investments would go into regions other than Bangalore. Many of the large projects will encourage an industrial eco-system to come up around it. The government estimates that the projected investments could create an additional employment opportunity for 35 lakh people.