“The state high level clearance committee, chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, cleared four major IT projects, with combined investment of Rs.2,957 cores, while the single window clearance cell, chaired by IT Minister S.R. Patil, cleared five projects with combined investment of Rs. 140 crore”, said an official statement.
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The inauguration of the investors’ meet saw the participation of Union ministers and business leaders including Tata Trust Chairman Ratan Tata, Infosys Co-Founder & Chairman N R Naryan Murthy, Walmart India CEO Kris Iyer, and several others. He, however, requested the state government to address infrastructure needs at the earliest.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the summit, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the government is ready to provide 500 acres in one of the districts – Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad or Raichur. “We rank as the state with the Second highest FDI in India”.
Though the Congress government has been vying with other states to attract investments since its return to power in 2013 after a decade, its attempts to get big ticket investments eluded for various reasons, including lack of support and social infrastructure beyond Bengaluru and delays in clearances.
In the run-up to the mega event, which has been re-scheduled from November due to acute drought in many parts of the state following deficient monsoon, the state government had unveiled a five-year start-up policy to create a world class start-up eco-system, amended its textile policy to offer incentives and concessions to attract investments in textile parks across the state. To a query on how many companies or investors evinced interest in these projects on Wednesday, Deshpande said, “We will provide all details on Thursday”.
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Of the 117 infrastructure projects across the state, 25 pertain to strengthening basic amenities in Bengaluru and easing traffic congestion, parking shortage, skywalks for easy movement of pedestrians on busy road junctions. “We have already told the Centre about the four locations that have been shortlisted”.
