The Karnataka government has said it will provide 500 acres of land for setting up a fertilizer (urea) plant in north Karnataka and 100 acres for a centre of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) either in Mysuru or Mangaluru.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced this on the opening day of ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’ here on Wednesday.
He said 5 acres would be allotted for establishing an R&D centre of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology in Bengaluru.
Responding to a demand for allotment of land for a urea factory, made by Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, Mr. Siddaramaiah said 500 acres would be allotted for a urea factory in one of the four districts of Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad and Raichur in north Karnataka. The factory’s annual production capacity would be 13 lakh tonnes.
Presiding over the maiden investors’ meet of his government, Mr. Siddaramaiah said to promote ease of doing business, the government would set up an industry–government partnership entity, which could provide and promote a host of services under the ‘Invest Karnataka’ brand.
“Karnataka is a $120 billon economy. Let us make it a $700 billion economy by 2035. If India aspires to grow at 9 per cent, let us aspire Karnataka to grow at 10 per cent,” he said.
The World Economic Forum had identified Karnataka among the top four innovation hubs in the world and Bengaluru had been ranked as the fourth largest global tech cluster after Silicon Valley, Boston and London. Over 400 of the biggest Fortune 500 companies had made Karnataka their home and continue to invest in the State, the Chief Minister said in his address to the summit.
As per the Global Startup Ecosystem ranking report 2015, Bengaluru was the only Indian city to be ranked among the top 20 startup ecosystems in the world, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
