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Global investors' meet from June 5; Karnataka hopes to net Rs 250-billion projects

The Karnataka government's ambitious global investors' meet, or GIM, scheduled to be held in Bangalore June 5 is estimated to bring in projects worth Rs 250 billion, if official estimates are to be believed.

Karnataka Industry Minister R V Deshpande said on Saturday that an estimated Rs 100-billion projects, already in the pipeline, were formally cleared on Friday. The final clearance would be announced during the GIM.

He said the high-level committee of the state government would consider the proposals received from 18 companies at a special meeting scheduled for June 8. About 100 small industries' proposals - each with an investment of less than Rs 500 million -- would be cleared by the single-window agency from June 9 to 14, he added.

He said the GIM would also clear direct projects proposed by the investors during the month-long meet. The projects cleared would be provided with letters of intent.

C K Neelkanta Raj, chief of Karnataka State Industrial Investment Development Corporation, or KSIIDC -- the nodal agency which is doing the legwork for the GIM -- said that about 2,000 invitations were sent worldwide. About 75 per cent of those invited had responded, thereby making the whole exercise of the GIM a success. He said in all about 800 people would participate in the meet.

The GIM is scheduled to be inaugurated by Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha at the banquet hall of the Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat). Besides Sinha, the opening ceremony would be attended by leading industrialist Rahul Bajaj and Union Minister for Tourism Ananth Kumar among others. Philip Yeo, chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board, would be a special invitee.

Planning Commission member and former Finance Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia would open 'The Indian Economy' -- the first main business session. Jagdeesh Capoor, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Aziz Premji, the Wipro chief, are scheduled to be part of the business session.

Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra, V Suresh, chairman of Housing Urban Development Corporation, or HUDCO, and Jairam Ramesh, chairman of Karnataka Planning Board, will speak 'Infrastructure'.

The third session will be on 'Karnataka overview', where heads of industrial houses from Karnataka, including multinationals, will share their experience with the delegates.

The business session on the second day would be addressed by Nandan Nilekani, chief executive officer of Infosys Technologies; Bob Hoekstra, chief of Philips Software; Rajeev Chandrashekar, CEO of BPL Telecom; P M Sinha of Pepsi Foods; and Bobby Parikh of Arthur Andersen India.

Zee Telefilms chief Subhash Chandra, UTI chairman P S Subramanyam and president of American Chamber of Commerce in India Sanjay Bhatnagar who would participate in the Day-2 session.

According to Deshpande delegations from the USA, Malaysia, Germany, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Singapore and Hong Kong have listed for participation in the meet.

A cabinet sub-committee will approved the proposals put forth for consideration during the meet.

The meet has been jointly organised by the state government, the Confederation of Indian Industry, or CII, and the Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation Limited.

The government will spend about Rs 30 million for the two-day main function.

The meet, originally conceived by the J H Patel government during 1998 was deferred indefinitely due to various reasons including the general elections.

UNI

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