Bengaluru: The big industrial investments are yet to be announced, but the knowledge industry and infrastructure moolah flowed in as industrialists and politicians, from CM Siddaramaiah to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, all appeared on the same side – Karnataka’s side – on the opening day of Invest Karnataka 2016.
Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani announced the setting up of an aerospace innovation and research centre at Whitefield; Adani Group boss Gautam Adani said he was putting in Rs 11,500 crore into more than tripling his Udupi power plant’s electricity generation capacity, setting up a 1,000 MW solar power plant and developing the Tadadi port; and Union minister Nitin Gadkari promised Rs 1 lakh crore from the Centre for roads in the state over the next two years.
Mr Jaitley said the country was moving from the political model of ‘co-operative federalism’ between the Centre and States towards an economic ‘competitive federation’ in which states competed with each other for investments. Commending the Siddaramaiah government for holding Invest Karnataka, he said the effort should be to go beyond Bengaluru’s IT tag to bring large manufacturers to the state. “Every rupee that is invested in Karnataka contributes to India's growth”, and given Karnataka’s human capital and natural resources, its growth “should be at least 2-3 per cent ahead of the national GDP growth," he said.
Mr Ambani said the aerospace centre, to be set up under his Reliance Defence division, would bear his father Dhirubhai Ambani’s name, generate over 1,500 skilled jobs and support the Modi’s government plan to indigenize the defence industry.
Mr Adani said the Udupi power plant would expand from 500 MW to 1,600 MW capacity and supply power to 20 million households, up from nine million currently.
