Public-private initiative planned to promote Hubli as investment hub

Public-private initiative planned to promote Hubli as investment hub
The Business Line BANGALORE, JAN. 15

A new public-private platform is planned to promote Hubli-Dharwad region as the next investment destination in the State. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Hubli Chapter has come forward to help promote the twin city in various national and global meets.

The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister and Dharwad district-in-charge Minister, Mr Jagadish Shettar, addressing a TiECon 2012 session on ‘Taking Leap From Rs 100 crore to Rs 10,000 crore: Pune Story and Hubli Road ahead,' said, “The district administration will support the public-private initiative and help bring together authorities, entrepreneurs and eminent personalities to promote Hubli-Dharwad as the next investment destination in the State.”

“The public-private platform will be constituted in the next two months and I will instruct the district administration to reach out to the private sector to help constitute a co-ordination committee to being the process,” he added.

Dharwad Deputy Commissioner, Mr Darpan Jain, made a presentation on the initiatives taken by the district administration to improve the infrastructure in the region and on the further plans like upgradation of the airport, Bus Rapid Transport System, rolling out of the 24x7 water supply project to the entire city and others.

As the moderator of the session, Prof Ashok Shettar, Principal of BVB College of Engineering, said the TiE Hubli Chapter was ready to take up the responsibility of co-ordination on the issue, and Mr Jain felt there was a need for a more concerted and co-ordinated effort for marketing the region. “We will take up the proposal for discussion and act on constituting a co-ordination committee within two months,” Mr Shettar said.

The Karnatak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President speaking on the occasion, said the chamber has already joined hands with the administration in promoting the region. “We facilitated setting up of permanent exhibition centre in north Karnataka to come up in Hubli-Dharwad. Co-ordinated with Apeda and Kappec to set up cold storage facility in the region,” he added.

LESSONS FROM PUNE

Speaking on the occasion, Commodore Anand Khandekar, President of Puna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, suggested a public-private platform is crucial to promote the twin cities.

Mr Khandekar, elaborating on the Pune model of developing the city into an investor-friendly region, talked about the strategy adapted by them to promote the city.

The Maratha Chamber of Commerce took up the responsibility of promoting the city through various initiatives. “There was no response in the beginning. But once it started, there was no need for further marketing,” he said. anil.u@thehindu.co.in

3 science centres coming soon in Karnataka

3 science centres coming soon in Karnataka
Published: Friday, Jan 13, 2012, 10:42 IST
By Aishhwariya Subramanian | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Karnataka will soon be home to three science centres as the construction of these centres in Dharwad, Mangalore and Mysore is going to be over in coming years.

Director of Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM), Shivaprasad Khened said that the science centre being constructed at Dharwad is ready to be inaugurated, while the construction of new centres in Mangalore and Mysore will be completed in the coming years.

“The centre is ready to be inaugurated as early as this month. We are just working on the logistics,” Khened said. The centre is being built at the cost of `8.5 crore and is jointly financed by the state and the central government.

He also said that the Mangalore centre is most likely to be ready in another six months. “We are setting up the models in Mangalore and it should be ready for business by June this year,” he said.
Khened revealed that a plan for another science centre for children in the state is also on the cards but the state government has not announced it officially so far.

“We will start working on a centre in Mysore some time this year. Usually it takes about three years to complete these projects; so it ought to be ready by 2015,” he said.

Creating the right temper
“We are expecting students from all over the state to come and visit these centres and be inspired to become scientists. It’s important for informal institutions for science learning to create a scientific temper amongst the youth,” Khened said.
He said that each centre is unique in terms of models and displays.

“Dharwad is known for its cultural and historic roots. So, we have set up a display that details the kind of technology used in the Harappan times. We are still working on what goes in the Mangalore centre,” he said.

TiE Hubli to tie-up with India- American Chamber of Commerce

TiE Hubli to tie-up with India- American Chamber of Commerce
The Hindu BusinessLine HUBLI JAN. 5:

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Hubli chapter, is planning to associate with the India-American Chamber of Commerce to bring more business collaboration to North Karnataka.

According to Mr Naveen Jha, President, TiE Hubli chapter and Director - Deshpande Foundation/DCSE at Hubli, “IACC will provide various business networking opportunity with the US companies through various events.”

“For the first time, IACC members are to participate in the TIE-CON meet to be held at Hubli on January 14 and 15. This is likely to offer the Hubli-based companies an opportunity to meet with them 1-1 basis,” he added.

IACC, set up in 1968, has more than 2,600 companies as it members and represent the business and economic segments such as manufacturing, exports, and services. Few companies are involved in a cross-section of business domains such as engineering, consumer goods, electronics, IT, pharmaceuticals, and consulting.

In its more than three decades of existence, IACC has established operational connectivity with a host of business, research and developmental institutions in India and the US in order to leverage each other's capabilities for enhancing Indo-US business relations.

The Chamber has been continuously interacting with the Indian and the US Governments and provides them feedback on issues relating to bilateral trade. It also acts as a forum to its member companies for interacting with senior functionaries of both the governments.

Mr Jha said TiE Hubli and companies in the region are likely to benefit from this association for the chamber has been a catalyst for sustainable growth of business between India and the US by identifying Indian products possessing export potential for the vast US market.

The chamber also facilitating participation in exhibitions and trade fairs where Indian and US companies showcase their respective strengths, capabilities and core competencies. Organises catalogue shows; regularly bringing out publications for the benefit of its member companies.

anil.u@thehindu.co.in

More metro than ever before

More metro than ever before

DH News - G K Karanth

Tier II or III cities / towns are beginning to be two things at the same time. First, they are beginning to mark a complete destination, of ‘arriving’, for a whole generation of migrants and aspirants from around their hinterlands.

Thus, for a whole lot of people in Sindhuvallis, it is via Nanjangud to Mysore; or for those from Airody, it is via a Kundapur or an Udupi to Mangalore. Second, these tier II or III cities are increasingly becoming a mere stop-over for a whole lot of rural first generation migrants before their final ‘journey’ eventually to a metro such as Bangalore or Mumbai. The significant feature of agriculture to industry/service sector-related migration is that whether one lives today in a tier II or I city, the lifestyle orientations are already ‘more-metro than ever before.’

Not only are they deeply embedded in the tier I or II city-economy, they are equally, if not more powerfully, culturally integrated with the metros! Almost every rural child is brought up today with a glamorous-centre-page-glossy dream of abandoning the rural base at the earliest opportunity. To a whole lot of ‘late comers’, tier II cities are more than a transit lounge while their visa aspirations have been one of a Schengen visa! So too, the tier II cities such as Dharwad-Hubli, Mangalore, Mysore, etc, have now begun to extend their relations beyond having satellite docking stations in metros like Bangalore.

No longer are people from North-Karnataka (those from Bijapur, Bellary, Dharwad-Hubli) concentrated in the Rajajinagar area of Bangalore, just as the Mysoreans, Mangaloreans etc, with their concentration in Jayanagar or Basavanagudi. They are there now across Bangalore! The tier II cities too have tended to likewise become a mixed pot of people from different directions around it, just like different mohallas or koppalus had people from specific village belts, a decade ago.

Further, Mysore, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad, or Mangalore too have now been well on their way to becoming miniature metros for they too can now boast of having their share of ‘multi-ethnic, regional, emerging middle classes’ living in them, thanks to MNCs gaining a foothold there, or local enterprises stretching out to become emerging enterprises; body shopping mindfully or unmindfully, so long as a sleeping town is suddenly woken up!

And of course, they too like to now engage in civic governance, infrastructure, proper services, balanced growth and above all planning for area development.

Town planning

The skills and foresight required for town and city planning is much more diversified than the metro-centred planning process as it has now become a mindset for us! Maharashtra with Mumbai, UP, Haryana and the surrounding states with Delhi, West Bengal with Kolkata have had the rough road.

Tamil Nadu has done well by focusing on Class II cities by letting Madurai, Salem, Erode, Dharmapuri, and now Hosur do well for themselves, alongside Chennai. It is time that Karnataka too paid sufficient attention for planned growth of the mini-cities, than merely playing a rhetoric of development of small towns and cities. This planning has to be ‘realistic’ planning rather than ‘real estate’ planning!