Vision groups to be formed across 7 sectors to lead industrial growth: Minister M B Patil

BENGALURU: The state government will constitute new vision groups across seven sectors to promote industrial development, Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil said.

He was speaking at a meeting held here on Monday evening with leading industrialists to exchange ideas about promoting industrial growth in the state.

The state government so far had a vision group related to overall industrial development. This is for the first time that vision groups are being formed sector-wise, a statement said.

The vision groups will comprise industry experts, public sector officials and academic experts. These groups, which will be institutionalised, will provide holistic guidance to the department and lead industrial progress in the right direction, the minister stated.

The proposed vision groups will span the sectors of aerospace and defence, machine tools, ESDM, core manufacturing, pharma, startups (non-IT) and auto/EV.

The government also intends to promote manufacturing and industrialisation in sectors such as future mobility, green hydrogen, food processing, textiles, and warehousing and logistics, Patil explained.

Mentioning opportunities for green hydrogen, he said that the state has already attracted commitments worth
about Rs 2.8 lakh crore from interested players. Stating that the first green hydrogen cluster of the country cluster will come up in Mangaluru, he added that the required infrastructure, including land and water, will be facilitated and incentives will be extended as per norms.

The government is planning to set up a Karnataka Aerospace Technology Centre at Devanahalli R&D park to ease information dissemination, enable networks and market linkages and create Common Facility Centre (CFC) and incubation centres. Intensive efforts are under way to pursue opportunities worth approximately Rs 2.5 lakh crore, he noted.

An IFS officer of PCCF grade will be appointed within the department to facilitate resolving environment-related issues, Patil said. He also shared his experience on how environment-related issues were successfully resolved by appointing a PCCF-grade official in the Irrigation Department when he was minister during 2013-18.

He assured that the government will always consider the opinions and suggestions of industrialists with an open mind and ensure maintaining industry-friendliness.

Foreign embassy officials of several countries, Gitanjali Kirloskar of Toyota Kirloskar, Sushant Nayak of Tata Motors, Rajiv Kushu of Texas Instruments), Vincent of Foxconn and Amit Kumar Singh of Asian paints were among representatives of over 30 industries who were present.

Representatives of organisations such as CII, FICCI, FKCCI, AWAKE and KASSIA also attended the meeting. Principal Secretary S Selva Kumar and Commissioner, Department of Industries, Gunjan Krishna, KIADB CEO Girish were also present.