Budget may have special features for industries

by S. Rajendran

Information Technology major Wipro and steel giants Arecelor Mittal and Posco will be among the nearly 300 major companies which will be signing memorandums of understanding with the State Government as part of the Global Investors Meet to be held in June.

Karnataka, which ranks third in industrial development in the country after Maharashtra and Gujarat, is working at ways to climb to the top position.

A few years ago, the State was in the fourth position behind Tamil Nadu.

Several announcements as part of the industrial policy (2009-14) are expected in the coming State budget to take the State forward in the industrial sector.

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who is in the process of preparing the State Budget for 2010-11, is likely to see that the budget will have special features for the industrial sector.

The aim is to give a fillip to industries by providing the requisite land, infrastructure and power.

Apart from the multinational companies, the Tatas (Tata Elxsi computer hardware project with an investment of Rs. 486 crore), Birlas (a cement project costing Rs. 3,000 crore) and Reliance (Chennai-Bangalore-Mangalore gas pipeline project with an investment of Rs. 6,796 crore) have held discussions with senior officials of the Government and the MoU will be signed in June.

In the last 18 months, the Government has approved 120 big project proposals (over Rs. 50 crore of investment) with a total investment of Rs. 2.95 lakh crore, and in January alone has cleared 38 major projects with an investment of Rs. 1.38 lakh crore.

Wipro will be provided with nearly 50 acres of land in the vicinity of the international airport at Devanahalli and will invest Rs. 477 crore in a new computer facility which will provide employment to 15,000 people.

A new land acquisition policy is on the anvil and among other things, farmers are expected to be paid a much higher value than the prevailing market rates in the revenue pocket where the land is sought to be acquired.

The Government is keen on having a vast land bank of at least 50,000 acres across the State and the children of farmers who part with their lands will be put through a special industrial training programme and given suitable placements in the industries.

Sources close to the Chief Minister told The Hindu that the State, which is presently starved of electricity, has an ambitious plan to add at least 1000 MW a year over the next three years.

A long-term plan has been prepared to add 15,000 MW of power to the installed capacity of which nearly 5,000 MW would be added to the State grid during the tenure of the present Government and another 10,000 MW added between 2013 and 2018.

Investments

During the budget preparation interactions, Yeddyurappa has indicated that industrial investments must be across the State and not merely centred around Bangalore.

The larger aim of the Government should be to prevent the migration of people to the urban areas and simultaneously ensure that all people have a good livelihood.

Thus, even the multinational companies who have approached the Government for industrial projects in the State are being taken on site visits to the northern districts and the Government has conveyed to them that dry lands will be made over to them at a much cheaper cost.

(Courtesy The Hindu)