K'taka plans investors' meet in March

The Karnataka government proposes to organise an investors' meet as part of its Suvarna Kayaka Yojane on March 11.

All major industrial houses of the country will be invited to participate in this congregation of industrialists at the Bangalore Palace Grounds, which is expected to be attended by over one lakh people.

According to Karnataka minister for large and medium industries Katta Subramanya Naidu, the event will be used to showcase the opportunities for investment in the state.

On the occasion, the state government will felicitate the four best industrialists from each district selected by a panel headed by the commissioner of industries.

"We will invite all the big industrial groups from across the country including Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and our own IT bigwigs like Infosys and Wipro among others to participate in this historic assembly of industrialists," Naidu said.

Addressing a press meet here on Thursday after meeting the representatives of SMEs from all districts, Naidu said that the government will organise two investors' meets at Mangalore on January 22 and at Hubli on January 24.

The investors' meet at Mangalore will be attended by over 100 companies and the state government is likely to clear investment proposals worth over Rs 1,000 crore, he said.

At the Shimoga investors' meet held recently, he said the government received investment proposals for Rs 400 crore. The government has approved the setting up of two power projects, one sugar factory and one three-star hotel in Shimoga.

Responding to a query, he said the state government would return all the fertile agriculture land acquired for developing industrial estates in the state in the coming days.

The state government will acquire 24,000 acres of land for the industrial development (16,000 acres for industrial estates and 8,000 acres for single unit complexes), of which hardly 60-70 acres is fertile agricultural land in and around Bangalore.