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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Karnataka Kannadigas reservation Bill: ‘Must not affect…’
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw supports Karnataka's bill mandating job reservation for locals but emphasizes the need to safeguard the state's tech leadership position.
Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that the new bill in Karnataka that mandates reservation for locals in private firms is an understandable move for job creation. Although, the bill should not impact Karnataka’s position as the leader in technology, she stressed.
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Tagging Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, and Minister for Electronics, and IT Priyank Kharge, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said on a social media post, “As a tech hub we need skilled talent and whilst the aim is to provide jobs for locals we must not affect our leading position in technology by this move. There must be caveats that exempt highly skilled recruitment from this policy.”
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This comes as the Karnataka Cabinet approved a new legislation that mandates 50 per cent of management positions and 75 per cent of non-management roles in private firms to be reserved for local candidates. In case the bill is violated, there can be a penalty of up to ₹25,000. For reserved positions, candidates must have a secondary school certificate with Kannada as a language or pass a Kannada proficiency test.
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The Act defines a local candidate as a person “who is born in the State of Karnataka and who is domiciled in the State for a period of 15 years and who is capable of speaking, reading and writing Kannada in a legible way and has passed a required test conducted by the nodal agency”.
The Act also noted, “If sufficient number of local candidates are not available, then an industry or factory or other establishments may apply for relaxation from the provisions of this Act to the government, and after due enquiry, the government may pass appropriate orders and such orders passed by the government shall be final."
