WEF Meet: Karnataka Draws Over Rs 59,000 Crore Worth Investment In Davos

The Karnataka government has succeeded in drawing total investments of Rs 59,350 crore with its participation at the World Economic Forum Meet in Davos.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai addressed the media today (27 May) upon his return to the state capital and said talks were held with many global corporate honchos to draw investments to the state and two major companies have inked MoUs to invest a total Rs 52,000 crore in Karnataka.

“This is the biggest investment flow the state is registering in the recent past. ReNew Power Pvt. Ltd, has signed an MoU for an investment of Rs50,000 crore spread over the next seven years for setting up Renewable Energy, Battery Storage, Green Hydrogen units with employment opportunities for about 30,000 persons,” said Bommai.

The company, as per the release, intends to implement the projects in two phases. In the first phase, the projects which are already under implementation would be operationalised within 2 years with an investment of Rs11,900 cr. In the second phase, renewable energy and green hydrogen units would be set up over the next 5 years with an investment of Rs 37,500 cr.

Lulu Group International has inked an MoU for investing Rs 2,000 crore. The company is keen to open four shopping malls, Hyper Market and export oriented agro-products stores in the state with employment potential for more than 10,000 persons.

”These MoUs complement the growth of industrial and energy sectors in the state providing employment for more than 40,000 persons,” said the CMO release.

State Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh Nirani said the government is expecting Rs 5 lakh crore investments in Karnataka during the Global Investor Meet to be held from 2 - 4 November 2022, and that world’s leading investors have shown keen interest in investing in the state.

“Our government’s investor-friendly steps, pleasant weather conditions, world-class infrastructure facilities including roads, water and power supply are attracting investors into Karnataka. Massive investments will help set up more industries and create jobs for local people and address unemployment problem,” the minister said.

Jubilant Group, Hitachi Energy, Siemens, Ab Inbev, Dassault Systems, Nestle, ArcelorMittal, Bharti Enterprises are among the prominent companies which have assured to invest in the coming years.

A detailed presentation has also been made for the company to convince about attractive incentive packages to invest in Pharma and FMCG sectors in the state with major focus on the FMCG Park being developed in Dharwad.

Hitachi Energy is said to have shown interest in setting up EV Charging infrastructure, Renewable Energy and Digitalisation projects.

Siemens Healthineers is undertaking R&D in healthcare projects focusing on Magnetic Imaging and Diagnostics with an investment of Rs 1300 crore. The state government has assured special incentives for setting up advanced manufacturing of medical devices to cater to the local market with an investment of Rs 300 crore. Thus, the company is keen to invest a total of over Rs 1,600 crore in the state.

Under the Beyond Bengaluru programme the State government discussed investment opportunities in cities like Tumakuru, Hubli-Dharwad, Mysuru. Ab InBev intends to set up a non-alcoholic beverages unit in the state with an investment of Rs 50 crore, while Nestle is set to expand and modernise its existing Instant Coffee unit in Nanjangud with an investment of Rs 700 crore.

Dassault Systems has evinced interest to invest in Electric Vehicles, Modern Production systems in association with CMTI, industrial training for students in Digital 4.0 technology and Smart City project in Karnataka with total investments of Rs300cr.

Schneider Electric is planning to consolidate their 5-6 facilities in Attibele to a single unit in Jigani with additional capacity for manufacturing new models of Data Centre UPS and energy efficient devices with an investment of Rs 300 crore.

Among other investment plans are that of ArcelorMittal who intends to set up Solar-Wind Hybrid project with an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, Bharti Enterprises which is keen to set up a Mega Data Centre in Karnataka in addition to their existing Data Centres.

Apart from these, Adani Group, Dalmia Cement, Johnson Controls, Honeywell, IBM, Ikea Stores, PayPal, Axis Bank have shown interest to invest in various sectors of the state, said the release.

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