Corporate bigwigs upbeat about Karnataka as ideal investment destination

Corporate honchos are upbeat about investing in Karnataka and have huge investment plans in the state. The three-day 'Invest Karnataka 2022' event, being held in Bengaluru, is expected to attract Rs 7 lakh crore. Many corporate bigwigs, Sajjan Jindal of JSW, Karan Adani of the Adani Group, and the Sterlite Group among others, have announced their plans to invest in the state in the near future, and expressed their confidence in the investor-friendly policies of the state government.

Adani Group will invest almost Rs 1 lakh crore over the next seven years in Karnataka, Karan Adani, CEO of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, said during the summit. The conglomerate plans to invest more in the renewable energy sector and is also looking to expand its footprint in the cement manufacturing sector. The Adani Group has already invested more than Rs 20,000 crore in the state.

“The business group is active in multiple sectors in Karnataka, beginning from cement, power, piped gas, and edible oil to transport, logistics, and digital. The Mangaluru International Airport, owned by Adani Airport Holdings, a subsidiary of Adani Group, will be expanded. As of now, it is undergoing a facelift,” said Adani.

Sajjan Jindal recalled his group's association with Karnataka which goes back to the mid-1960s and how his uncle picked Karnataka as he was looking for a place to expand business in the country. He said the JSW Group has already invested around Rs 1 lakh crore so far in the state, and has plans to invest an additional Rs one lakh crore over the next five years. The investment is expected to be focused on expanding its steel plant, renewable energy and port infrastructure development. “We had set up our steel plant in Bellary in Karnataka in the mid-90s and it is now the largest in the country and would also become one of the largest in the world,” said Jindal.

It is expected that a large chunk of the Rs 50, 000 crore investment by Sterlite Power in the renewable energy segment will go to Karnataka. This was announced by Pratik Agarwal, managing director, Sterlite Power at the summit.

Agarwal said Karnataka as a state has both solar and wind potential and also sites for pumped hydro-storage. “Karnataka has one of the highest renewable energy generation in the country,” he noted.

He observed the need for Karnataka to adopt the model of building intra-state transmission through PPP route. “We are developing two critical lines of transmission in Karnataka, one connecting to Kerala and the other to Maharashtra via Goa. Both these lines are critical for the exchange of renewable energy in the coming years.”

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji recalled that in 1996, his shifted its base to Bengaluru from Mumbai and how software exports from India were just worth $72 million at that time. He said today Wipro has more than 2,50,000 employees around the world and a significant number of them are in Karnatka. He said the state contributes around one-fourth of the share of the total IT exports.

“Global spend on technology is set to double and the outlook for the technology industry looks positive,” said Premji.