BackCompanies seek to invest ₹ 7.6 trillion in Karnataka
Companies seek to invest ₹ 7.6 trillion in Karnataka
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Bangalore: The second edition of the Global Investors Meet (GIM) organized by the Karnataka government recorded investor commitments of about ₹ 7.6 trillion, surpassing the ₹ 4.73 trillion in the 2010 edition.
About 730 memorandum of understanding (MoU) and expression of interest (EoI) agreements were signed across 25 sectors at the two-day meet, allaying apprehensions that global uncertainty would turn the event into a damp squib.
To be sure, there is no guarantee that the proposed projects will actually get off the ground. Of the 392 MoUs signed in the 2010 meet, only 77 projects have been completed—translating to about 5% of the total value of the agreements signed, according to Karnataka’s commerce and industries department.
Unlike in 2010, when the iron and steel sector attracted a bulk of the investments, 39.6% of the investments this time are proposed for the energy sector, followed by 15.3% for the iron and steel sector.
Small and medium enterprises attracted around ₹ 71,000 crore.
Assuring investors of speedy approvals, chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said he will supervise the implementation of these projects.
“Every month, I will hold an exclusive review of the GIM projects with the ministers concerned. You (investors) can contact my office or call me personally on my mobile in case of any delays," he said.
On Friday, the second and final day of the 2012 GIM, Tata Steel Ltd signed an EoI to scale up its steel plant project in Haveri district to 6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) at an investment of ₹ 35,000 crore. It had earlier proposed to set up a 3 mtpa plant at ₹ 15,000 crore.
Reliance Industries Ltd subsidiary Infotel Broadband signed an in-principle agreement to set up a facility at the upcoming Devanahalli information technology (IT) park, entailing an investment of ₹ 3,300 crore.
Other major investment commitments at the event include NMDC Ltd signing an MoU for ₹ 25,000 crore, Composite Global Energy Ltd for ₹ 20,000 crore, Marib Infrastructure India Pvt. Ltd for ₹ 18,400 crore and BMM Ispat Ltd for ₹ 16,230 crore.
The state secured about ₹ 5 trillion in investment commitments on the first day of the GIM on Thursday. GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd had announced an investment of ₹ 29,000 crore to set up power plants and Suzlon Group signed a pact to set up ₹ 20,000 crore of wind and solar energy projects in the state.
On Friday, the focus was on the banking and financial services, IT, housing and infrastructure sectors.
Aerospace was also in focus. Sun Forest City signed a ₹ 9,340 crore MoU for developing an aerospace city in three phases near the Bangalore international airport.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that India will be the biggest market in the coming few years," David Dufrenois, vice-president of South Asia sales at Airbus SAS, said at an aerospace and defence sector panel discussion on Friday. Over the next 20 years, India will need 1,043 new passenger and freight planes to meet demand and will be the fourth largest buyer in the world both in terms of the number of aircraft and revenue, he added.
Chief minister Gowda met a Japanese delegation to discuss the setting up of a township in the north of Devanahalli and to establish the Peninsula Regional Industrial Development Corridor that will pass through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
madhurima.n@livemint.com
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