Karnataka plans KHIR City; aims to generate Rs 40,000 cr investment & create 80,000 jobs

MB Patil, Karnataka's Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development, said that apart from ensuring job creation and attracting investments, the initiative has the potential to contribute towards the state’s GDP

Karnataka government November 10 unveiled Knowledge, Healthcare, Innovation and Research (KHIR) city, which is being planned on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The state aims to attract Rs 40,000 crore in investments in healthcare, innovation and knowledge sectors, creating 80,000 jobs in the proposed KHIR City. This new investment region will be developed within 60 km of Bengaluru in a phased manner. While the location is not yet to be finalised, it is likely to come up near the Kempegowda International Airport.

Karnataka is planning KHIR City on the lines of Singapore’s Biopolis Cluster and Japan’s Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster.

Addressing the ideation session for setting up KHIR City, MB Patil, Karnataka large and medium industries and infrastructure development minister, said: "Karnataka is flexible in terms of private company participation, offering formats via land lease models, special project vehicles and fully private models".

“Apart from ensuring job creation and attracting investments from leading global and Indian hospitals, research centres, universities and private companies, the initiative has the potential to contribute towards the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to increased economic activity. Besides attracting investments, it aims to contribute at least 1 lakh crore to the state GDP,” said Patil.

“The proposed KHIR City is being developed to attract investments from leading global and national hospitals, research institutions, universities, private companies, etc. This will help in strengthening Bengaluru’s position as a hub of medical tourism, providing employment to local people and also help in attracting skill sets from across the globe,” said Patil.

He said Bengaluru has the largest skilled talent pool in India and is best suited for the development of KHIR City. "Karnataka has a strong innovation ecosystem with many global companies’ R&D units set up here. Leading healthcare players are already present in the state. About 60 percent of India’s biotech companies are in Karnataka,” said Patil.

“With Karnataka being home to 60 percent of India’s biotech companies and over 350 medical devices and supplies manufacturers across categories, the development of KHIR near Bengaluru, the fastest-growing innovation cluster globally, augurs as an ideal location,” said Patil.

“KHIR City is poised to redefine the city's global position by fostering the growth of cutting-edge knowledge institutions, healthcare facilities, innovation hubs, and research centres. Karnataka is already among the top five states in India in terms of economic value and contributes about 8.7 percent to the National GDP. Such initiatives further strengthen the state's position in the country,” said Patil.

Priyank Kharge, state IT-BT minister said KHIR City will be the first such centre of knowledge that will have innovators from healthcare, knowledge, and global research centres coming together in one place. “Bengaluru will transform from being a call centre of the world to a global centre of research and innovation,” he said.

“The government is planning to come out with a separate policy to promote medical tourism in the state. The state is home to 350 medical devices and suppliers across categories and multiple institutes of excellence are present, providing collaboration opportunities,” said Kharge.

The industry representatives suggested that the government should focus at improving the skills of workers in the state that will be required for the setting up of the knowledge city. They also suggested focusing on life sciences and looking at holding a roadshow to attract capital into this sector.

Kris Gopalkrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and chairman of Axilor Ventures, said, “The implementation speed is important for the development of KHIR City. We need to first develop a Metro station before the KHIR City takes shape. Also, we want to generate IPs (Intellectual Property) owned by India or Karnataka so that jobs and wealth are created here. We need to have an institute that trains scientists and researchers on how to move from lab to market.”

"We can also think of miniaturising this model in revenue division, and the whole objective is to promote jobs, talent, and knowledge in regions like Mysuru, etc. There is a need to build a neurology institute and genetics here as it is expensive to send it to other states and countries," said Dr C N Manjunath, director of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

“We should focus on IP-based research in this City. Transitioning Karnataka from a services economy to a higher-value IP-based economy is very important. We need to incentivise job creation. We should focus on giving incentives to people who create IP, and this will differentiate Karnataka from other states in the country,” said Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel Partners.

“It is very important that hospital groups are partners in this city. Today the largest investment is in healthcare startups, but they do not understand how hospitals work. Once this city supports them, then the product that comes out in the market will bring startups and end users together,” said Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, founder and chairman of Narayana Health.

“There is a shortage of 50-70 million healthcare workers in the country. A Paramedical university is an urgent need. We want to set that up in the country because it is the nurses and other staff that take care of the patient and not the doctors,” Shetty added.