Karnataka to develop tech design centre in Belagavi: Ashwath Narayan

The “emerging technology design centre” would be built for ₹150 crore, according to Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, Karnataka’s minister for higher education, according to a statement from his office.

The Karnataka government said on Monday that it will set up a new tech design centre in Belagavi and fast-track the process to establish India’s first electric vehicle cluster in the region that would generate new jobs and usher in capital to help bring down the regional disparity in the state.

The Karnataka government said on Monday that it will set up a new tech design centre in Belagavi. (ANI)

The “emerging technology design centre” would be built for ₹150 crore, according to Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, Karnataka’s minister for higher education, according to a statement from his office.

“(The) minister also assured that he would consult with chief minister Basavaraj Bommai (for the) speedy development of special investment regions (SIR) across the state. Narayan stated that the steps will be taken to establish India’s first electric vehicle cluster, start-up grid and a tech park with a seating capacity of 20,000 employees in the Hubballi-Dharawada- Belagavi cluster. To promote setting up of industries in the cluster ₹25 crore has been provided to the Hubli cluster seed fund,” the statement said on Monday.

The statements and initiatives are part of the state government’s plans to increase the number of jobs in the region due to a regional disparity with the south, driven by Bengaluru, which gets majority of all investments in the state.

Karnataka houses at least 400 out of the Fortune 500 companies, has 1,876 Artificial Intelligence-based startups; is the fourth largest tech cluster in the world and ranks first in the number of fintech startups in the country, according to information shared by the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission.

“KDEM, spearheading investment promotion in the State’s technology industry, to create 40 Unicorns and 50 Soonicorns and target having 150 VC investors with a corpus of USD 100 bn. Karnataka has already launched the Pioneering ER&D Policy 2021. Karnataka’s new data centre policy aims for ₹10,000 crore investments in 5 years,” according to Sanjeev Gupta, CEO, KDEM.

Though Karnataka is considered among the most industrious states in the country, the regional disparity has been growing as successive governments continue to focus on the ‘development’ of Bengaluru, which has led to the neglect of other regions, people familiar with the matter said.

“On comparison, the level of per capita state income at constant (2011-12) prices was ₹1,54,123 in 2020-21 and is expected to be ₹1,68,050 in the year 2021-22 with a growth rate of 9.0%,” according to the economic survey.

At current prices (makes no adjustment for inflation), the per capita income is expected to rise to ₹2,78,726 in 2021-22 as against the national average of ₹1,50,326, data shows.

However, much of this growth is powered by Bengaluru, the largest city and growth centre of Karnataka, which contributes over half of the state’s gross domestic product.

“Kalaburagi region’s per capita income is less than half of the per capita income of the Bengaluru region,” the economic survey notes. Kalaburagi division represents the Kalayana-Karnataka region, while the Belagavi division represents the Kittur-Karnataka region, which is home to some of the most backward districts in the country.

The Kalaburagi division’s per capita income stood at ₹123,489 for 2019-20 as against ₹326,099 in Bengaluru, data shows.

The per capita income of the Mysuru region stood at ₹223,305 as against ₹137,089 in the Belagavi division. The per capita income of Bengaluru (excluding the urban district) stands at ₹165,361, data shows.