India Semiconductor Association

Bangalore is currently driving the design activities in the semiconductor business. Over 80 percent of the 200+ companies in this field are located here. Also, the strength in designing, embedded software, VLSI, R&D, etc., lies in the state's talent pool of half a million.

The ISA has been instrumental in pushing the Karnataka semicon policy. In the policy, the state government has laid emphasis on not only the promotion of the semiconductor industry in Karnataka, but also on building up the required human resources for this sector.

The Minister added that the state government had recently approved setting up of an IT Investment Region (ITIR) near the Bangalore International Airport. This is a Government of India scheme, covering a geographical area of about 40sqkm. The ITIR would be a fully integrated IT township catering to IT, ITeS and electronic hardware manufacturing. The ITIR would be a trend setter in India and is also likely to create 4 million jobs in this decade.

He acknowledged the IT industry for creating a strong base of knowledge-base industries in Bangalore. The state government would now like to see similar development happening in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The state government has entrusted the work of developing the IT infrastructure in Shimoga, Gulbarga and Belgaum to Keonics. The tier-2 and tier-3 cities will witness plenty of IT investment in the next year.