Development of a textile mega cluster in Mysore, a master plan for a smart city in Tumkur along the proposed Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor, besides scaling up of the biotech cluster in Bangalore were some of the announcements of interest to Karnataka in the Union Budget 2014-15.
Coming amid high expectations from trade and industry in the State, the maiden budget of the Narendra Modi government did not disappoint as is evident from the reactions of industry bodies.
On the proposals for industry, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said master planning for three new smart cities on the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor region would be completed. Besides Tumkur, Ponneri, near Chennai and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh are the other locations. A master plan study, covering an area of 560 km across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, is expected to be completed by early 2015, as part of the corridor project with which Japanese International Cooperation Agency is associated.
The perspective plan for Bangalore-Mumbai Economic corridor, besides that of the Vizag-Chennai corridor would also be completed.
Mysore is one of the six locations where the government proposes to set up a textile mega cluster and for them Rs. 200 crore was being allocated. Mysore, already famous for its silk saris, is one of the fast-developing cities of the State, and has been receiving attention in terms of infrastructure development.
In BangaloreKarnataka will also get one of the six new debt-recovery tribunals. Noting that the rising non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks is a matter of concern for the government, Mr. Jaitley said the new debt-recovery tribunals would be set up at Chandigarh, Bangalore, Ernakulam, Dehradun, Siliguri and Hyderabad. He also announced that the development of biotech clusters in Bangalore and Faridabad would be scaled up and taken to international quality.
Mineral royaltyAn aspect of significance to the State was the assurance of Mr. Jaitley on revision of rate of royalty on minerals. Pointing that many State governments had requested for a revision, he said the previous revision was in August 2009. “Another revision, which is due, will be undertaken to ensure greater revenue to State governments.”