Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is all set to take on China. In his maiden Budget presented on 5 July, he announced a ‘compete with China’ scheme, under which, to counter the inflow of products imported from China, manufacturing units will be set up across the state.

Kumaraswamy said, “Spare parts will be manufactured at the village level, assembled at the taluk level, and malls will be opened to market them.”

The Chief Minister’s ambitious plan foresees the state manufacturing solar power goods, LED lights, bathroom fittings, sporting goods, electrical goods and electronic toys in various districts of the state in two years.

Rs 14,000 crore has been allocated for the project and Kumaraswamy has promised to create 8 lakh jobs as part of the scheme. A "Program Mission Unit" under the leadership of successful entrepreneurs in the state would be set up to create detailed blueprints and to handhold the project.

Solar district and LED factories

One of the first projects proposed by Kumaraswamy was setting up a ‘Bharat Solar District’ in Kalaburgi. Under this project, factories in this north Karnataka district will manufacture solar panels, inverters, capacitors and laminators to produce solar power.

To tap into India’s Rs 46,000-crore LED bulb market, Chitradurga district will become the hub for manufacturing LED bulbs, said Kumaraswamy. He proposed that household-made LED bulbs will compete with the Chinese products that have taken over a large share of the market.

Bathroom-fitting cluster and integrated circuit factories

The next project on the list is manufacturing bathroom floor tiles and sanitary goods. “Earlier, the market of bathroom fittings was limited to Indian-made goods. To compete with Chinese products, it is the ambition of our government to develop Hassan district as bathroom floor tiles and sanitary goods manufacturing district,” said Kumaraswamy.

Claiming 80% of global demand for Integrated circuit chips are met by Taiwan, the Chief Minister proposed setting up dedicated manufacturing units in Mysuru. He said the state already has manufacturing units for IC and ICB chips, which will be helpful.

Units for separating mobile components

With the Chinese mobiles flooding Indian markets, an industry of mobile components is proposed in Chikkaballapur on the outskirts of the city.

“Every year, mobile phones valued at more than Rs 5 lakh crore are being imported into India from China. Old mobile phones are being replaced by new mobile phones within only two years. Every old phone will get Rs 4,000 if the original components are separated. There is an opportunity to separate component of 3 crore old phones,” Kumaraswamy said.

Sports, textile and agriculture

Rs 2,000 crore will be spent to set up production units for sports and fitness equipment in Tumakuru district. As per the proposal, equipment of different kinds, required for over 23 sports, will be manufactured in these units.

Bidar district has been allotted Rs 2,000 for manufacturing agricultural implements required for agriculture and protection of agricultural products. According to the Budget, the allocation will be distributed among companies who come forward with plans to set up agricultural factories in Bidar.

As Ballari district already has an established textile industry, additional funds will be provided to enhance operations in the district, read the Budget.

Training and plug and play industrial sheds

Plug and play industrial sheds will be constructed across the state to accommodate these projects. To implement these schemes, expert workers trained for six months to two years are needed, for which training schools will be opened in the first phase, Kumaraswamy said.

The Budget has provided Rs 500 crore for training this year in seven districts and in the next four years, Rs 2,000 crore will be given in the form of equity share capital to private institutes participating in this industry, he said.

While the ambitious project plans to take on China, a senior bureaucrat closely associated with the project said that the biggest challenge will be to create an industrial ecosystem that can sustain it.

If you look at China, a factory can be easily set up as a network of suppliers of raw materials or distributors is already established. We will need to create such an ecosystem in our state over the next few years. This will be the biggest challenge.

This article has been republished with permission from The Quint.