BENGALURU: Karnataka accounts for an almost-unbelievable 44.3% of t he total investment intentions in the country in 2017. The figures from the Union commerce and industry ministry for January to September show Rs 1,47,625 crore worth of investment proposals have come into the state. That's out of a total of Rs 3.3 lakh crore for the whole of India.
Gujarat follows way behind at Rs 65,741crore. Karnataka was the No. 1 state even in 2016, accounting for 37% of investment intentions. In 2015, this was 10%, and the state was behind Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Many of these intentions will not translate into actual investments, or may happen over several years, but that will be true for most states. So the differences in actual flows across states may not be very different from that in investment proposals.
Industries minister RV Deshpande said Karnataka is unarguably an attractive investment destination, given its rich demographics. "I don't want to claim this has happened only because of me or my government. Various stakeholders, especially the IT sector, have played a big role.
We have collectively become No. 1 and the government is only claiming credit for being the catalyst and supporting industries with some progressive policies," he said. Industry ministry officials said the IT sector accounts for the major share of investment proposals, followed by the energy sector, R&D, engineering and tourism. Among major projects approved in the past few months are Oracle's special economic zone (SEZ) with an investment of Rs 2,348 crore, and L&T Construction Equipment's investment of Rs 2,080 crore to set up two IT/ITeS
SEZ projects.
Intel has proposed an investment of over Rs 1,100 crore to expand its R&D presence. Investment proposals worth Rs 6,569.39 crore have come in for tourism and industrial infrastructure. Cornerstone Property Developers has proposed an entertainment theme park for Rs 1,330 crore. Many projects in solar energy have been approved, including some by the Aditya Birla Group. Several large-scale IT/industrial parks have also been proposed. Deshpande said the government is continuously bringing reforms to make it easier to do business in Karnataka.
A senior official handling investment facilitation said the state needs to focus more on reforms and ease of doing business to maintain its position in the coming years.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com