Karnataka to launch new industrial policy from April

Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj Wednesday announced that the state would implement a new industrial policy from April 1 to attract investments aimed at creating a million jobs in the next five years.

The government also holds a Global Investors Meet in Bangalore in October this year to showcase investment opportunities in the state, he said addressing the joint session of the two houses of Karnataka legislature, marking the beginning of the legislative business for the year.

The details of the policy are being worked out and would be announced soon, according to official sources.

The 2009-14 industrial policy of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government ends March 31 this year and Congress's Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who took office May 13, 2013, after the party defeated the BJP in the assembly elections, has been holding discussions with stakeholders on formulating the new policy for the next five years.

The chief minister told a meeting of industry and business representatives here last October that his government would bring in "a new, comprehensive policy to enable accelerated growth of industries in the state".

Bhardwaj also announced that all two-year pre-university (equivalent to class 11 and 12) students in the state would be given laptops or digital notepads free of cost, a promise made by the Congress in its manifesto for the assembly elections.

Around one million students are expected to benefit from the scheme.

Lauding the Congress government for introducing schemes to benefit all sections of the society, the governor said it would provide "clean and transparent" administration.

He also promised that the government would open colleges exclusively for women in various parts of the state, particularly in backward areas, and also start a medical college in the districts which did not have it.

Opposition BJP and Janata Dal-Secular leaders, Jagadish Shettar and H.D. Kumaraswamy respectively, however, termed the governor's address "lacklustre".

The session will last for seven days.

The legislature would meet again in February when Siddaramaiah would present the state budget to beat the model election code that would come into effect once the Election Commission announces the dates for the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

Generally the state budget is presented after the central budget which is tabled in parliament on the last day of February.