Karnataka: After freebies in polls, Congress govt seeks 2050 plan
By Our Special Correspondent
Bengaluru, June 13: The Karnataka government will be setting up vision groups in seven sectors to draw a 2050 plan, as part of the bid of the Congress administration to spur industrial growth in the state. The Congress had aggressively played the freebies card in the Karnataka election, which by a section of economists would cost the state a whopping Rs 62,000 crores, while the total budget size is little over Rs three lakh crores.
The Karnataka government is proposing to set up vision groups in areas such as Aerospace & Defense, Machine Tools, ESDM, Core Manufacturing, Pharma, Startups (non-IT) and Auto/EV. “Karnataka should have a long-term vision for 2050, with ease of doing business as the Core focus,” said MB Patil, large and medium industries Minister in Karnataka, while interacting with a group of industrialists in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He said that the vision groups to be formed across seven sectors will lead industrial growth.
The vision groups will comprise industry experts, public sector officials and academic experts, said an aid of Patil, who added that these groups which will be institutionalised will provide holistic guidance to the department and lead industrial progress in the right direction.
“The government also intends to promote manufacturing and industrialisation in sectors such as future mobility, green hydrogen, food processing, textiles, and warehousing & logistics,” Patil said, while adding that for green hydrogen the state has already attracted commitments worth about Rs 2.8 lakh crore. The first green hydrogen cluster of the country cluster would come up in Mangaluru, he said, while adding that added that the required infrastructure including land, and water will be facilitated, and incentives will be extended as per norms.
“The government is planning to set up a Karnataka Aerospace Technology Centre at Devanahalli R&D park to ease information dissemination, enable networks and market linkages and create Common Facility Centre (CFC) and incubation centres,” said Patil.
The Congress was flayed in some quarters for boarding the politics of freebies with its five poll guarantees in Karnataka – free electricity upto 200 units, unemployment allowances for graduates and diploma holders, Rs 2000 to women each month, free bus rides for women, and 10 kg free rice.
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