BANGALORE: Belying India’s slowing economy and ongoing policy paralysis, the Karnataka state government pulled out all stops to project the southern state as the best investment destination in the country, at the second edition of its Global Investors Meet that began in Bangalore on Thursday.

The government has signed investment agreements worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore, as opposed to its stated target of Rs 6 lakh crore. At the 2010 event, the state government had signed agreements of about Rs 3.92 lakh crore worth of investment proposals from 389 global and Indian companies.

Empower Your Corporate Journey with Strategic Skill CoursesOffering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Leadership in AIVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Chief Technology OfficerVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Chief Product Officer ProgrammeVisit Speaking at the sidelines of the biannual event, Murugesh Nirani, state minister for large and medium-sized industries said that the government hopes to attract investments of over $100 billion (Rs 5,51,700 crore) at the meet, surpassing the $70 billion (Rs 3,86,190 crore) worth of Memorandum of Understandings signed in 2010.

However, the BJP-led government’s lack of progress in implementing a sizable number of MoUs signed two years ago came in for stringent criticism.

“In 2010, Rs 4 lakh crore worth of MoUs were signed, but only 4% of that has taken off so far. The government has claimed it has created a single-window clearance for these projects, but the reality is, when we peep through this window, all we can see are several doors,” said S R Jindal, chairman and managing director, Jindal Aluminium.

A number of investment promises made at the 2010 meet have largely fallen flat, with projects announced by steel giants Arcelor Mittal and Posco yet to take off, and land acquisition issues continuing to be a major hurdle.

“The problem with this country is (that) infrastructure projects get delayed for too long. A project that can be completed in three years takes 10 to 15 years here. We need faster decision making and (need to) come out of this mindset,” said B N Kalyani, chairman and managing director, Bharat Forge.

Investor-Friendly Measures

The state government has claimed that it has put in place a number of investor-friendly measures in place ,which have ensured an implementation of 62% of the projects across sectors.

However, the ruling party, which recently completed four years in power, has been facing a political crisis since the last meet, with former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa forced to resign, amid allegations of corruption.

A number of sizable deals was announced at the two-day event, with power and infrastructure conglomerate GVK Group announcing its intention to spend Rs 29,000 crore to build power plants in the state.

The renewable energy space also got a big boost. Tulsi Tanti, chairman and managing director of the Suzlon Group, announced plans to set up 3,000-MW wind- and solar-energy projects, at a total investment of Rs 20,000 crore. Separately, Welspun Energy also signed an agreement with the government to build a windmill and solar park for Rs 9,900 crore.

The Aditya Birla Group, through its cement company Ultra Tech Cement, will also invest Rs 6,150 crore to expand its existing factory in the state, and an additional Rs 395 crore to set up a caustic soda plant.

“We will also be expanding our fibre plant in Harihar and our alumina plant in Belgaum,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman and managing director, Aditya Birla Group.

B Muthuraman, vice-president of Tata Steel, also announced his company’s plans of investing Rs 3,000 crore to build a6-MTPA plant in the state.