Karnataka beckons US firms to invest in state

Bengaluru, March 30 Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayana on Tuesday called upon US enterprises to invest in the southern state, which has an ecosystem for innovation and growth.

"American firms should invest in Karnataka and make use of its ecosystem to innovate and grow in India," Narayan said at a virtual meet on "Destination India: Karnataka showcases" event, organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

Narayan, who is a lawmaker from this tech city, also holds portfolios of IT, BT, electronics and science and technology, said the Indo-US bilateral trade in goods and services touched $149 billion in 2019.

"The people-to-people ties between our two countries, reflected in the 40-lakh Indian American diaspora, are a source of strength for the partnership," asserted Narayan.

Noting that the high-tech state was offering incentives to the industry, the minister said the state government had sector-specific policies for IT, BT, electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM), animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC).

"We have recently formulated a policy to promote and incentivise research and development (R&D) in the state. The objective of our engineering research and development (ER&D) policy is to make the state and Bengaluru as 'destination of choice' for the knowledge industry," reiterated Narayan.

State additional chief secretary Ramana Reddy said the state government was taking initiatives to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making the country a $5-trillion economy by 2025.

Indian consul general at San Francisco T. V. Nagendra Prasad, Tekion Corp chief executive Jay Vijayan, US-India strategic partnership forum chairman John Chambers participated in the inter-active event.

( With inputs from IANS )