K’taka gets Rs 4-lakh cr investment proposal

THE two-day Global Investors Meet (GIM) hosted by the Karnataka government ended on Friday with an assurance given by chief minister BS Yeddyurappa that there would be a periodic review of the investment proposals which amount to Rs 4 lakh crore. 
    At the end of GIM, the state signed 352 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with various companies, with the steel sector taking the majority share with Rs 2,21,344 crore, followed by the cement industry at Rs 36,991 crore and the power sector with Rs 25,214 crore. The total investment proposals have the employment potential of 8.65 lakh people. Addressing media persons, Mr Yeddyurappa said, “There will be a Cabinet sub-committee headed by me with special incentives to be provided on a case-tocase basis depending on the quantum of investment.” 
    He said the project proposals will be monitored in a timebound manner and implementation aspects will be looked into by the chief secretary every month. The chief minister will be reviewing the progress on a quarterly basis. Some of the key investment proposals during the second day of GIM included SBQ Steel’s Rs 12,000 crore investment, Kalavati Ispat’s Rs 2,884 crore, Gujarat Ambuja’s Rs 100 crore and Bosch’s Rs 500 crore. The state claimed that in the last one week alone, it has received 56 new proposals with investments totalling Rs 78,395 crore. 
    Mr Yeddyurappa said he held follow-up discussions with LN Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla and a Posco team besides meeting delegations from the US, the UK, Canada and Germany. The state is expected to enter into MoUs with public sector banks to provide financial assistance to the projects. 
    Answering to a query on the large investments coming into the iron & steel sector, he said it demonstrated the potential of the state while adding that the new mineral policy will provide iron ore mining leases to only those entities which are engaged in value addition. He said the process of providing fresh mining leases has begun and the government was expected to forward the proposals to the Centre soon.