'Capacity Building for Karnataka's $1 Trillion Economic Aspiration'

BENGALURU: To achieve Karnataka's goal of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2035, the state needs to take several measures for sustainable growth and development, said Kamal Pali, Managing Director and Chairman, Volvo India Group.

“Karnataka can achieve this goal by skilling around half a million youth every year, increasing R&D spending, making 900,000 registered MSMEs ESG compliant for market linkages, focusing on creating sustainable cities beyond Bangalore and becoming a leader in clean. Almost 50% of Karnataka's energy is (already) renewable,” he pointed out during his keynote address at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Karnataka State Annual Meeting 2024 in Bengaluru.

He noted that India's current economic growth rests on factors such as structural reforms, digitization of financial markets, financial inclusion and commitment to tackling climate change.

During the same event, N Venu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, India and South Asia, Hitachi Energy, noted that India needs to be 50% renewable energy dependent by 2030 if it wants to achieve its goals of net zero by 2070. Try 3-4 times the current effort.

„Energy conversion businesses, be it generation, transmission, distribution or consumption, is a huge opportunity for us. On the energy front, Karnataka is leading in the country in adopting renewable policy,” he said.

Venu, who served as vice-president last year, was on Friday elected as the president of the CII Karnataka State Council for the year 2024-25. He replaces Vijaykrishnan Venkatesan, managing director of industrial technology provider Kennametal India.

During his speech, Venkatesan emphasized that sustainable development of the state does not mean relying entirely on software exports to drive export earnings and GDP contribution.

„For the overall development of the state, especially at the grassroots level, skills, education, manufacturing, tourism, health and other sectors are needed to increase our economic growth, thus reducing any risk of over-exploitation of a particular sector,” he explained.

Ravindra Srikanthan, founder and managing director of engineering consultancy and solutions provider ASM Technologies Ltd, has been elected as the vice-chairman of the Karnataka division of CII.