Karnataka govt announces plans for India’s first EV industrial zone

The Government of Karnataka, on Tuesday, unveiled the blueprint for the Beyond Bangalore initiative for the Hubballi-Dharwad-Belagavi (HDB) cluster, which will also include India's first 'EV industrial zone'. The state government made this announcement at the ‘Techceleration 2022’, a two-day event conducted by Karnataka Digital Empowerment Mission (KDEM).

CN Ashwath Narayan, Minister for IT & BT, Science & Technology, Higher Education, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood, Government of Karnataka, in a statement, said: "We are proud to announce that Hubballi-Dharwad-Belagavi cluster in the last year has seen a cumulative revenue of Rs 1,400 crores. We have received investment interests of Rs 300 crores in the ESDM sector alone. I am thrilled to see KDEM’s initiative to bring entrepreneurs, industry, academia, and government together, and the momentum for Beyond Bengaluru building up and becoming a reality."

The state government’s Beyond Bangalore initiative for the Hubballi-Dharwad-Belagavi (HDB) cluster consists of five mega pillars:

India’s first EV zone: 500-acre EV industrial zone with a target to have a common centre for testing, validation, and certification.

Karnataka Start-up Hub: An iconic world-class infrastructure will house 5,000 start-ups.

IT Tech Park: To be set up in PPP mode with Class A infrastructure with 20,000-seater operations.

Manufacturing Launchpad: A plug-n-play factory for engineering and manufacturing setup of around 100,000 sq. ft. for companies to scale their businesses.

Five Centres of Excellence: To boost training, R&D, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Plans for setting up a Global Emerging Technology Design Centre at Belagavi at Rs 150 crore and a Centre of Excellence on Artificial Intelligence are underway.

Karnataka government’s Techceleration 2022 aims to bring together industry leaders, policymakers, the research and development (R&D) community, and representatives from start-ups to ignite the next wave of development from the Beyond Bengaluru cluster of HDB, it said in a statement.

In add-on to this, Techceleration 2022 is also a pre-cursor to the Karnataka Government’s Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 to be held between 16-18 November.

Moreover, KDEM is a vision group that works with trade associations to implement new policies in various industries including start-ups. KDEM also provides feedback on policy initiatives needed to attract investments, acts as a bridge between the government and the industry, and builds a comprehensive strategy. According to the state government, KDEM has helped Karnataka with investments in IT/ITeS by helping structure promotional efforts abroad.