As a veteran policy maker, what do you consider as the industry of the future?
In 1997, the future sunshine industry was IT. The sunshine sector today is aerospace and we expect the government of India to release the defence orders. Aerospace is also Karnataka’s strength. We have a 3,000-acre park near Devanahalli where aerospace and hardware industries will come along with MRO facilities and component making. Helicopters will be manufactured in Gubbi.
Now with the coming of robots and automation, we will see a lot of job losses which cannot be afforded. I agreed with Bill Gates when he said that since robots are replacing human beings, they should also be taxed. By 2025, India is going to be the nation with the youngest generation. Hence, we need to build labour intensive industries like toys and mobile manufacturing.
How has Karnataka fared in the consecutive investors’ meets in 2017, as against last year?
We have received `3 lakh crore in the Global Investors’ Meet out of which `1 lakh `70,000 crore has been cleared and approved. Most of the MOUs are getting implemented. But, I feel the investment speed in the manufacturing sector has slowed down because of a global investment slowdown in recent years. Recently, your paper carried a graph on the national level negative growth in employment generation. Karnataka is slightly positive, but I am not happy about that.
Many complain that the industrial development and investment is lopsided, favouring only Bengaluru...
We are also concerned about Bengaluru city’s pollution and environment and are trying to see that manufacturing units do not come here. We are trying to disperse manufacturing sectors to Mangaluru, Mysuru, Kolar, Vemgal, Narsapura, Vasanthanarsapura and Yadgir. Even the investors are realising that infrastructure is not that cheap here anymore. GlaxoSmith Kline’s biggest investment is in Vemgal; Honda’s is in Narsapura, Kolar district; Asian Paints and Pepsi have gone to Mysuru, while Havells has gone to Tumakuru.
Land acquisition legislation is tough. How difficult is it to procure land for industries in the state?
The present legislation is very tough but industry should also be able to afford land. No industry wants to spend more money to buy land. They invest more in factories, R&D, technology. The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has a good land bank but previously land was being acquired at the desire and fancy of a person. I said no, before you acquire land you need to see that they are not fertile, but barren and unfit for cultivation. Secondly, a demand survey done should be done. We’ll purchase land only if there is demand for investments in those areas. When we acquire land from KIADB, we give one job per family. I have been discussing with senior officials that we should start skill development and training of the older children, maybe 1 or 2 of the families to help them get jobs in industries.
Other states give incentives such as free land and have excluded VAT for 10 years to attract investments…
Concessions alone do not bring success. You should have full infrastructure for that. If you don’t have power, water, market and human resources, then what will you do with land? I am not in that mad race.
Do you think IT & start up policies need to be updated?
Karnataka brought the 1st IT policy and IT department in 1997 when IT exports were not more than Rs 500 crore and employment not more than 4,000-5,000. Today, millions are working in IT and companies need to change their outlook. They should be doing lesser outsourcing and invent their own products.