We have spotted new trends in emerging sectors early: Gunjan Krishna

DH Interview: On the sidelines of the Global Investors Meet, Gunjan Krishna, Industrial Development Commissioner, and Director, Industries Department, spoke with DH’s Arup Roychoudhury.

Bengaluru: On the sidelines of the Global Investors Meet, Gunjan Krishna, Industrial Development Commissioner, and Director, Industries Department, spoke with DH’s Arup Roychoudhury. Krishna said that the GIM focused on getting MSMEs on board with the latest manufacturing technologies, and that the new Clean Mobility Policy will also encourage emerging powertrain technologies like blended fuels and hydrogen, apart from electric vehicles. Edited excerpts:

The GIM has concluded with Minister MB Patil announcing Rs 10.27 lakh crore in investments. What have been your biggest takeaways? How has been the response?

The response has been overwhelming. The thing that we concentrated on is twofold. One is geography. We have had industry bodies and companies from Germany, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea, etc, companies which are looking to diversify their supply chain. There is the factor of China plus one, but at the same time, they have a falling population. And they are looking for new avenues for growth, and thus Karnataka is a good place for them to invest. That is why you have seen geography-specific MoUs being signed this time.

Second is sectoral. Which are the growth sectors, and which give the maximum value addition, we looked at which create the maximum employment, and which are the emerging technologies. We also had our core industries. Like the Jindals, Volvo, Safran in aerospace and defence, all of them are investing more. Then you have Lockheed Martin, which is setting up a maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) facilities

If you look at Karnataka, our base is very broad. So it is not just one very big sector worth $10 billion and the rest are small sectors. There is a big presence of multiple sectors, from machines to automotive, to aerospace and defence, biotechnology. And then we also pitched KWIN City. For that, a lot of universities, like Liverpool University, signed up to explore the setting up of a campus. We have had constructive discussions with York University and St Johns University as well. So for health and education, we have had a very focused approach to attract investment for KWIN City.

How has been the response in sunrise sectors like AI, deeptech, etc? 

We have taken a very holistic approach and were able to spot trends early with AI, deeptech, clean energy being the emerging trends as you mentioned. You have all these changes in geopolitics, and what would happen if higher tariffs come in, which is also something we are discussing, and taking these learnings to formulate policies.

If you saw our expo, and even if you see Venturize, our startup challenge, you would find lots of participation. Even for traditional sectors like manufacturing, how we can improve productivity there, using deeptech. We have had sessions on AI, manufacturing etc. So the idea is how we can implement all the best practices. Plus we did not lose sight of the MSMEs. And we trained them in ‘Manufacturing 4.0’ because it's not the prerogative of the bigger companies alone to use the latest manufacturing technologies and advancements. The MSMEs should also have access to that, because if their productivity increases, the efficiency of the economy increases.

Karnataka already had an EV policy in place. Why was the need felt for a new clean mobility policy?

The EV policy was only related to electric vehicles. We want to broaden this. You have technologies like hydrogen and blended fuels that are coming into picture. So that way it becomes, I'm not saying it's totally agnostic, but the new policy is giving that room for all of these technologies. 

The new policy also covers the entire supply chain for EVs, like components, research and development, the power trains, plus the testing and charging infrastructure.

Also, all three of your planned clean mobility clusters will be outside Bengaluru.

So while we always work towards getting more and more investment outside Bengaluru. But at the same time we have to realise that the engine of growth is also Bengaluru. So we try to do a balancing act. Because there are certain industries which require highly qualified people. So then it's better that they are near Bengaluru, Mysuru or Hubli-Dharwad.

The latest industrial policy was also released this time. As per you, what sets the state apart for investors, compared to competing states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc.

Its people and the rich talent pool. We are a net importer of talent pool. We have got the second largest number of AI professionals, the highest number of electronic design engineers. A 100,000 PhDs, aeronautic engineers, you name it. That is where our secret sauce lies. Second is we are very cosmopolitan. We embrace anybody who comes and they become Kannadiga at the end of the day. You may have people coming from UP or Punjab. After a few years they are as good as a local. Nobody wants to go out of Karnataka. That is our strength. Our school, universities, the talent pool, the technical education system.