Karnataka signs 6 LoIs worth ₹2,600 cr; anticipated to generate 3,500 new jobs

The Karnataka government has secured six Letters of Intent (LoIs), in the areas of drone technology, semiconductor, EV battery and biotech, for investments totalling ₹2,600 crore.

Addressing a press conference at the Bengaluru Tech Summit here, Karnataka IT and BT minister Priyank Kharge said these six projects, cumulatively, would create 3,500 new jobs. These agreements were a key highlight of the second day of the Bengaluru Tech Summit on Wednesday.

The Drone Federation India (DFI), a body that has 550 drone tech firms as its members, has signed an LoI with the State government to set up a drone flight test facility, the country’s first such infrastructure, and this would create over 500 new jobs in drone research, testing, development and manufacturing.

According to Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda, Chairman, KEONICS, the drone federation has committed to invest ₹50-100 crore in the testing facility. The government will offer a land parcel of 20 acres at Chintamani for the facility.

The drone testing facility will be established on a PPP model and land is to be contributed by the State government, while DFI will bring in drone firms to utilise the facility.

“Testing facility is also expected to trigger the creation of a holistic ecosystem for dronetech in Karnataka with elements such as cutting edge research, development and manufacturing etc coming up and create new jobs,” Drone Federation India’s president Smit Shah told The Hindu.

An LoI was also signed with Global HDI, a firm that specialises in producing High-Density Interconnect (HDI) printed circuit boards commonly used in consumer electronics, telecom, automotive, and high-speed devices, to open a HDI/multi-layer PCB plant at an outlay of ₹1,500 crore.

The other LoIs that are expected to bring fresh investments and jobs to Bengaluru included: Tsuyo Manufacturing to invest ₹250 crore to set up Cell Therapy R&D and EV Powertrain; MiniMines Cleantech Solutions to invest ₹350 crore to set up a Critical Mineral Refining Giga Complex; Elleve Solutions, an ESDM firm offering PCB design, prototyping, assembly, calibration, certification and contract manufacturing to invest ₹250 crore to set up PCB & electronics manufacturing facility; EyeStem Research, which develops scalable iPSC based cell therapies, starting with Dry AMD, to invest ₹130 crore to establish Cell Therapy R&D and manufacturing facility.