Improving infra, MSMEs are top demands of business leaders ahead of Karnataka elections

BV Gopal Reddy, President, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry, stressed on the need for connectivity to ports as that was important for industries. He also spoke on the need to develop north Karnataka in this regard.

Abhishek Kapoor, ED and CEO of Purvnkara, noted that there was significant scope for improvement in turnaround time of sanctions and approvals. He stressed on speed of execution in infrastructure.

“The other idea would be proactive thinking, in terms of understanding what is contributing today to the challenges of infrastructure, especially in terms of mobility and transportation in the city,” he said.

Observing that technology is the key factor that cuts across industries, Sindhu Gangadharan, MD, SAP Labs India, said this is also the beauty of Bangalore.

“So tech is really where we can really make a dent into all of those areas that we talked about. And this is also the beauty of Bangalore being the IT capital of India, the Silicon Valley of India. One thing we definitely have to work on is really make sure that the infrastructure of the city or the state has to match that stature. That's very important,” she said.

She highlighted the need of social infrastructure in satellite towns to motivate people to stay closer to such areas.

Stressing on the need to encourage MSMEs, Ajit Isaac, Chairman, Quess Corp, said if a about half a million MSMEs are initiated and they employ 3-4 people, then we can create two million jobs. And MSMEs creating around 2-3 million jobs was necessary to take Karnataka to a $1 trillion economy.

Kamath said that Karnataka has about 6 lakh MSMEs which employ an average of 1.5 people. He noted that there was a need to ensure easy accessibility of money to them.

Apart from these, he said the government should ensure 15-25% business award to MSMEs and also make sure that the payments to them for projects are done within 15 days of completion.

Reddy said that the government should have policies that ease the business for MSMEs.

Isaac also highlighted the need for the state to shift its focus to building infrastructure for education and training teachers, and also enhance women participation in workforce.

Sindhu Gangadharan stressed on the need to revisit curriculums, saying there is a need to bring coding and digital skills early on in high school levels. This would also bring more women in tech and ensure support to the various industries.