<center><b>ASSOCHAM Southern region presents webinar on</b></center>
          <center><b>Nava Karnataka: Ease of Doing Business in the State of Karnataka </b></center>
          <center><b>Investment Opportunities & Roadmap to Strengthen the Economy</b></center>
          <center><b>23rd February 2021 | 11:00AM to 01:00PM</b></center>
          <center><b>Post event report</b></center>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Inaugural Chief Guest: Shri. Jagadish Shettar,</b> Hon&apos;ble Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries,
          Government of Karnataka</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> Session Moderator -<b> Dr. Akhilesh Saurikhia,</b> Director - TAS, Ernst & Young LLP</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Invited Speakers:</b></p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Shri. Gaurav Gupta, IAS,</b> Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries, 
          Government of Karnataka</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Smt. Gunjan Krishna, IAS,</b> Commissioner for Industrial Development & Director - Department of 
          I&C, Government of Karnataka </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Dr. N. Shivashankar, IAS,</b> CEO, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB)</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Chandrima Sinha,</b> Vice President, Invest India</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Soumitra Bhattacharya,</b> President, Bosch Group in India & MD, Bosch Limited</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> • Salil Gupte,</b> President, Boeing India & Vice President, Boeing International</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Mahesh Kapri,</b> Managing Director GE BEL & GM, GE Healthcare</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> • R K Misra,</p> Co-Chairman, ASSOCHAM Karnataka Development Council and Founder director, 
          Center for Smart cities.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• Uma S Nair,</b> Regional Director - Southern region, ASSOCHAM</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Uma S Nair </b>- Welcomed the panellists and welcomed the participants and partners to the program.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri. R K Misra -</b> Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel members. 
          Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease of doing 
          business in the State of Karnataka. He said that the New Industrial Policy 2020-25 will help the Global and 
          Domestic Investors in the State. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri. Jagadish Shettar</b> - Welcomed the dignitaries present at the webinar, Industrialists, Industry 
          Association President,<b> Gaurav Gupta,</b> Additional Chief Secretary - Commerce and Industries, <b> Gunjan 
          Krishna </b> Commissioner Industrial Development and Director of Industries and Commerce,<b> Dr N. 
          Shivashankara,</b> IAS, CEO, KIADB, Soumitra Bhattacharya, President Bosch Group in India & MD, Bosch Ltd 
          <b>Chandrima Sinha,</b> Vice President, Invest India, Senior officers from Govt. of India & Govt. of Karnataka, 
          Media friends and all the participants. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• India has emerged as one of the most attractive destinations for investments and doing business. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>• India has jumped 79 positions from 142nd (2014) to 63rd (2019) in 'World Bank's Ease of Doing 
          Business Ranking 2020'.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Karnataka is the home to India's Silicon Valley; it is a leader in sectors such as Information 
          Technology, Information Technology enabled Services, Machine Tools, Aerospace, Biotechnology, 
          and Engineering Design.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• I am happy to share that Karnataka State is the leader in the Ease of Doing business. Its businessfriendly environment, transparent process and simplified government rules and regulations have 
          made it easier not just for large companies but also for MSME's and Start-ups.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Government of Karnataka comes out with industrial policies at regular intervals of five years to 
          ensure a well-balanced, sustainable and inclusive industrial development.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Last industrial policy was brought out in 2014. Since then, many changes have happened, and new 
          opportunities have emerged, particularly in manufacturing and manufacturing-related service 
          industries including smart manufacturing, customization, collaborative production etc.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The focus of the New Industrial Policy 2020-25 is to exploit Karnataka's industrial prowess, create 
          an enabling environment, develop infrastructure, and provide equitable opportunities for the 
          people of the state, particularly in industrially backward districts Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities & ensuring 
          inclusive development of investment within the state.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Ease Of Doing Business: Karnataka Focused: </b></p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The Karnataka government also launched the Affidavit Based Clearance Scheme, also known as 
          ABC Scheme, to facilitate and attract investment in the state. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • The newly launched scheme is part of the recently promulgated the Karnataka Industries 
          (Facilitation) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 to facilitate manufacturing industries and enterprises 
          in the state. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • The new scheme's objective is to simplify regulations, reduce procedural requirements and create 
          a conducive investment environment. The Ease of Doing Business is an essential indicator of the 
          investment-friendly business climate in the country. Improvements in the ease of doing business 
          will enable faster future growth of the state economy.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The State Government has implemented an Affidavit Based Clearance (ABC) scheme to facilitate 
          smooth business. The project aims to simplify establishing industries through the selfproclamation deed, covering a range of selected business services from various departments. This 
          will help to streamline business processes and provide a conducive environment for investment.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Priority Sector: For the first time in India, Karnataka has embarked on a manufacturing businessoriented incentive system to ensure balanced industrial development of the state.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The policy aims to encourage large and medium industries by providing incentives to all sectors. 
          The objective is to provide infrastructure and credit facilities, skills development training and 
          technical support for industries across the state.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Numerous initiatives have been made in this new industrial policy to create Narendra Modiji's 
          dream \&quot;Self-Nirbhara India&quot;\, which is expected to attract investment from both domestic and 
          multinational industries.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• I want to thank you for creating this incredible platform and would like to assure all investors that 
          my government will provide full support for any businesses in the state.<.p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Shri. Gaurav Gupta, IAS -</b> Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel 
          members. Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease 
          of doing business in the State of Karnataka. He said that as the Karnataka state is the entrepreneurial 
          capital of India also start-up capital of India, where State has ranked number 1 in the innovation sector recent announcement made the Central government. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> He has stressed about past 12 month that the State Government has announced several incentives to the 
          policy landscape changes and make more convenient for investors to choose Karnataka as the destination. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He also spoke about the new Industrial Policy 2020-25 ensures that State remains the most attractive 
          destination for investment and the policy will develop Karnataka&apos;s industrial landscape in a holistic 
          manner mad ensure well-balanced, sustainable and inclusive industrial development thought the State. 
          The new industrial policy focuses on utilization of Karnataka&apos;s industrial infrastructure, create an 
          investment enabling environment and provide equitable opportunities for the people of the State. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> This new policy provides immense opportunities for growth and innovation in the industrial sector of 
          Karnataka, the State Government works towards to give bog boost to the ongoing industrial development 
          in the State, also policy made in view of investor centric approach to build a prosperous Karnataka and 
          create large-scale employment opportunities and committed to bringing ease of regulatory compliance 
          for business. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>The Government has also started an ambitious program on reforms in partnership with departments and 
          various stakeholders to make it more convenient start and operate the in the State. The policy has 
          identified thrust areas to create an ecosystem for an inclusive and sustainable development trajectory in 
          the state and aims to boost large and medium scale industries by introducing various incentives across 
          the sectors.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Smt. Gunjan Krishna, IAS </b>- Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel 
          members. Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease 
          of doing business in the State of Karnataka. She said about the principals of Karnataka State policies, as 
          the State is pioneer is E-governance in the Country. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>She suggested to come up with new set of directives for as the priority sector. The State government has 
          recently announced affidavit based clearance which helps to ensure initial approval to ground the project.
           Said about the single window clearance system, as there is been plenty of system in place, the Department 
          is working on imagining the system to streamline the process and have initiated an outside approach 
          which is based on the requirement of the investors to help in getting the necessary approvals in one place.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>The Industries is working closely with key industry players such as Bosch, GE Healthcare, Boeing and many 
          more private industries to create a series of workshops to understand the current requirements in 
          partnership the Public and Private partnership to build the imagining the State as Investor centric.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> Said about the compliance by looking at better service on ease of doing business in the State, many of the 
          laws have been accommodated long back, need to ensure that changes can be made. The Department is 
          been organising series of meetings with various department focused meetings to address regulatory 
          compliance burden in the State and look the improving the ease of doing business in the State. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Dr. N. Shivashankar, IAS </b> - Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel 
          members. Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease 
          of doing business in the State of Karnataka. He said that the key objective of the KIADB is to acquire the 
          industrial lands and allocate the lands in the State.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>There is been developments in the plug and play system for allocate the industrial lands and investors also 
          the Department of Industries have taken several initiatives to ease the business activity in the State, such 
          as quick review of proposals, cost, time of production these are the few key initiatives taken at KIADB.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>There is also a directive from DPIIT and Invest India on creating plug and play model to create a platform 
          with all information available on website and established about 20 plus industrial parks in the State. 
          Keeping in mind this key criteria of EODB in the State will help the investors buy and industrial land and 
          allows them to start the activity in 15 days. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He said that in an effort to boost Karnataka&apos;s industrial and innovation capability, the State government 
          has identified nine districts to foster innovation and product diversification.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>This initiative has been already implemented in various districts include Kalaburgi for manufacturing of 
          solar power goods, Chitradurga for manufacturing of LED lights, Hassan for manufacturing of sanitary 
          goods, Koppal for manufacturing of mechanised toys, Mysuru for ICB manufacturing unit, Ballari for textile 
          industry, Chikkaballapur for mobile phone components, Tumkur for sports and fitness goods and Bidar for 
          manufacture of agricultural implements.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>In order to achieve the objective of recreating manufacturing and boosting job development across the 
          State, the government has set up vision groups for each of the identified groups comprising of industry 
          leaders and experts. He said that with these initiatives and several support from the State Government in 
          plug and play system in the State will reach new heights in attracting global investors. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Chandrima Sinha </b>- Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel 
          members. Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease 
          of doing business in the State of Karnataka. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> She said, as the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India focuses on sectorspecific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in 
          India. In addition to a core team that focuses on sustainable investments, Invest India also partners with 
          substantial investment promotion agencies and multilateral organizations. Invest India also actively works 
          with several Indian states to build capacity as well as bring in global best practices in investment targeting, 
          promotion and facilitation areas.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>She said about the investment ranking had concerted efforts at various levels of Central and State 
          Governments in terms of ease of doing business ranking, were able to position ourselves in a span of 5 
          years come to a position 6 to 3. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> She was happy to share that the India has moved up in the Global Competitive Index ranking from 71 in 
          2014 to 43. In terms of Innovation in the country is Karnataka is the hub of Innovation. One of the key 
          initiative improve the IPR rule and regulations that allows the investors gain the confidence and help to 
          move up the innovation ranking in the global innovation index ranking. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> Said many set of single window system have been setup in country at State and Central level and resulted 
          taking lot of time in seeking approvals, in effort to ease the time of approval at the central level the agency 
          have created a national single window system were helps in ease of seeking approvals and helps in connecting a various levels of departments in one place also in maintaining as central repository of all the 
          licence and regulations in the Country. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Soumitra Bhattacharya </b>- Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel 
          members. Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease 
          of doing business in the State of Karnataka. He was happy to share that 99 years of Bosch in India and 69 
          years for Bosch Make in India and Karnataka.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> He said the Single widow clearance at the Central Government is working on setting up a Single Window 
          System for clearances and approvals of industry in the country. Despite the presence of several IT 
          platforms for investing in India such as in departments of the Government of India and State Single 
          Window Clearances, investors need to visit multiple platforms to gather information and obtain 
          clearances from different stakeholders. To address this, the creation of a centralized Investment 
          Clearance Cell which would provide end-to-end facilitation support, including pre-investment advisory, 
          information related to land banks; and facilitating clearances at Central and State level was proposed and 
          the same is also a Budget Announcement 2020-21.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> Make in India will not work if we take a conventional linear approach. Our &apos;Make in India&apos; has to be 
          different from China&apos;s in the sense that we have to do a &apos;jugalbandi&apos; of our IT skills that exist and our 
          evolving manufacturing skills and become intelligent manufacturers. This is a whole new area, and we 
          have to come up with ideas as to how the landscape of regulation and incentives can change in order to 
          create this kind of Jugalbandi. We need to fix the supply chain issues to make the Jugalbandi a possibility.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Salil Gupte</b> - Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel members. 
          Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease of doing 
          business in the State of Karnataka.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He was happy to share that the India is a land of opportunities and the manufacturing hub of Boeing India 
          is based out of Karnataka with the work force of 3000 and 7000 plus from the 250 plus supplier side. 
          Boeing does import the material worth of about 7000 crore to the Boeing Global and other Entities which 
          is in line to the vision of Hon&apos;ble Prime Minister \&quot;Make in India&quot;\ and \&quot;Make for the World&quot;\. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He mentioned about the 4 key areas from Boeing are - Responsibility, Courage, Innovation and Flexibility. 
          He said that Boeing India has procured a 43 acre land and investing about 250 million dollars in the State 
          of Karnataka. He thanked the DPIIT, Government of Karnataka, IAS officers in supporting the investment 
          and approvals to invest. Also stressed that the connectivity to Devanahalli area is very critical to build the 
          world class service in the aerospace sector. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> He pointed out that COVID-19 was one of the biggest hit for the civil aviation industry and created 
          opportunity work closely with Government of India of the goods transportation across the country. Boeing 
          India is working closely with Government on developing various protocols and preparedness for the next 
          such crises. He also appreciated the effort of the Government of Karnataka for the aero show took place 
          recently in Karnataka.</p> 
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> The topic innovation is all about developing skills and help them maximize their productivity. Boeing India 
          worked closely for differently abled training programs and happy see their productivity in joint partnership 
          with Local MSME&apos;s in Karnataka. He said to recognize such talents and include the diversion as one of the practice in the training programs. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Mahesh Kapri</b> - Welcomed the esteemed panellists and shared that these esteemed panel members. 
          Thanked the ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share the perspective about the ease of doing 
          business in the State of Karnataka.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He is heading the ASSOCHAM Medical Equipment committee at National level, shared the efforts and 
          activity took place during the COVID-19 and Post COVID-19. The committee activity focuses in addressing </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>The local issues and liaison with respective departments and to align the work in line to Aatma Nirbhar 
          Bharat in Med Tech sector. GE Healthcare presence on Karnataka and Ease of doing business began in 
          1902 with Hydro power project in Shivanasamudra. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>He was happy share the presence of GE Healthcare in Karnataka with close 200 million dollars investment 
          and 8000 employees across Karnataka. Have partnered with many global companies such as Wirpo, BEL, 
          HAL and IISc and more than 1000 local MSMEs and suppliers and major manufacturing plants are based 
          out of Karnataka. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>Focused on addressing the local maternal deaths, heart devices, trauma patients and all aspects of patient 
          care and so much changed in recent days and seen the most accelerated transformation and growth after 
          COVID-19. He as was happy to share the intensive work done in COVID days in terms of availability of 
          medical supplies, rapid diagnosis and surveillances. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>The landscape healthcare industry in India are large and global companies build the technology and 
          partner with local SMEs to supply to the local community. The definite focus is to have global integrated 
          supply chain with dependency with local SMEs to address the issues and challenges and government of 
          India and Karnataka has supported the unprecedented demand supply chain and to move the supply 
          materials and deliver the materials to 100 of local suppliers to meet the community requirement. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>R K Misra </b>- Thanked all the fellow panellists and ASSOCHAM for hosting this online summit to share 
          the perspective about the ease of doing business in the State of Karnataka and rendered the closing 
          remarks. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Key Findings, Key Insights of this Program</b></p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Series of workshops to understand the current requirements in partnership the Public and Private 
          partnership to build the imagining the State as Investor centric. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The sector specific industrial land availability, plug and play system and affidavit based approval 
          in the State for Domestic and Global Investors. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Build the world class connectivity to Devanahalli area to felicitate the aerospace sector.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Work closely with differently abled and strengthen their skills and some incentives practice to 
          train them for future jobs</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Explore partnership with local MSME&apos;s to create the opportunity and employment in the State. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Centralized investment agency cell to help the investors such as providing end-to-end facilitation </p>
          support, including pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Create a PPP model to empower the local MSME&apos;s</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Create an awareness program on Digital Governance and educate the corporate, industry and 
          larger community on various services of State Government. </p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Larger corporates to come forward and adopt local ITI&apos;s to empower the future generation with 
          future ready jobs.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• The new Industrial policy will help the Capital incentive to attract the investment in manufacturing 
          sector such as I4.0 and R&D in the State.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Associated skill availability for manufacturing sector in the State.</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'>• To ensure the availability of sufficient funds as for skills training and other partnerships</p>
          <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Dual Education system to be inducted in the State helps in creating mixture of Syllabus and on the 
          job training.</p>