Indian State Of Karnataka Attracts Over $23B In New Investments

Investments worth over $23 billion were announced by Indian industrialists, companies and the government on the first day of a three-day summit in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The summit — Invest Karnataka 2016 — seeks to attract funds for the aerospace, biotech and information technology industries, as well as for the development of the state’s infrastructure.

“Karnataka is a $120 billion economy. Let us make it a $700 billion economy by 2035. If India aspires to grow at 9 percent, let us aspire for Karnataka to grow at 10 percent,” state chief minister Siddaramaiah said Wednesday in the state capital and tech hub of Bangalore. “We rank as the state with the second highest foreign direct investment in India. … Since we assumed office, we have received foreign direct investment worth $5.2 billion.”

In addition to the $14.7 billion investment promised by the country’s central government, which would reportedly be used for “road development in Karnataka” over the next two years, Indian companies such as the Adani Group, the Aditya Birla Group and the JSW Group also pledged significant investments.

Sajjan Jindal, chairman and managing director of JSW Group, said that the infrastructure company was looking to invest over $5 billion in the state over the next three to four years.

Gautam Adani, chairman and founder of the Adani Group — a company with substantial interests in coal mining, civil construction, logistics and the energy sector — announced an investment of over $3 billion in the state’s energy sector, including $1 billion to develop a 1,000 megawatt solar power plant, while Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said he would invest $300 million in the “near future.”

Additionally, German engineering and electronics company Bosch — which already has several manufacturing units and research centers in Bangalore — announced that it would invest another $147 million in Karnataka later this year.

“Karnataka remains a major investment destination for Bosch,” Peter Tyroller, a member of the board of management at Bosch, reportedly said.