Clearance for SEZ near Hubli may be given soon

Source: The Hindu

The Union Government is considering giving clearance for the setting up of a special economic zone (SEZ) on information technology and IT-enabled services at Gamanagatti near Hubli.

Assurance given

An assurance in this regard has been given by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma when Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi met him in New Delhi recently.

In a release issued here, Mr. Joshi said that the Union Minister gave this assurance when they met during the budget session recently.

It might be recalled that the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) is developing 12.15 hectares of land at Gamanagatti for a SEZ.

Mr. Joshi said that the proposal had been pending before the Union Government for the last two years.

He said that the SEZ Board of Approval of the Union Ministry of Commerce had approved the proposal at its meeting held on May 31, 2011. However, the Home Ministry's approval was essential and therefore the final approval was getting delayed.

He said that he had requested Mr. Sharma to exempt the SEZ in Hubli from getting approval from the Home Ministry and Mr. Sharma had assured him that he would issue the notification approving the SEZ soon.

[Hubli] Aayakar Seva Kendra to ease taxpayers' woes

Source: The Hindu

With the Income Tax Department setting up ‘Aayakar Seva Kendra' (ASK) here, the city has become one of 60 cities across the country to have such a facility.

Hubli is the third city in the State after Bangalore and Mangalore to have this facility, which aims to address the grievances of taxpayers at the earliest.

The ASK has been set up on the premises of the Income Tax Office at Navanagar here. It has begun operations and has been catering for the needs of taxpayers since the last few days.

Modernisation

According to B.L. Meena, Commissioner of Income Tax, Hubli, the initiative is part of modernisation programmes nationwide, such as e-filing of returns, e-payment of taxes, centralised processing of returns, online tax accounting system and refund banker scheme, for the convenience of tax payers.

Terming it a “milestone”, Mr. Meena said: “Aayakar Seva Kendra is a computerised, single-window system for taxpayers for delivery of services in a time-bound manner, as promised by the Income Tax Department in its Citizens Charter published in 2007.”

Facilities

The official said the kendra was user friendly.

All applications including income tax returns would be processed here, and system-generated acknowledgement numbers issued for easy monitoring of applications.

“The kendra's ultimate aim is to promote and encourage voluntary compliance through providing better taxpayer services,” Mr. Meena added.

NRI to set up Rs 10cr auto unit in Dharwad

Source: Times of India

HUBLI: It's a call of the motherland for Ravi Harsoor, an NRI hailing from Gulbarga and settled in the US, who has come forward to set up an auto ancillary unit in north Karnataka and contribute his bit to the industrial development of the region.

At the North Karnataka Investors' Meet held here on Monday, Harsoor expressed his intent to set up an auto ancillary unit at Belur industrial area in Dharwad at a cost of Rs 10 crore. It will be a pilot project and based on the response, the NRI plans to expand it further.

Born and brought up in Gulbarga, Ravi Harsoor is an engineering graduate settled in America for the past 18 years. He worked for a few years at the Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai before moving on to the US.

Speaking to TOI about his project, Ravi said he was waiting for some opportunity to set up an industrial unit in north Karnataka. It came in the form of the North Karnataka Investors' Meet.

"I was invited by the industries ministry to attend the meet. I decided to tap the potential of the region in the auto sector," he said.

"If the pilot project takes off well, we are keen on setting up a permanent auto ancillary establishment investing Rs 50 crore more," he said.

Two of Harsoor friends, Virupannavar and Goutam Chopra are also joining hands with him in this venture.

Now, the team is in the process of identifying land in Belur and finding prospective buyers.

They plan to start the unit by the end of December.

Harsoor is running real estate and health care projects in the US. He is also owns a BPO in Mysore.

Tata Steel gets land for Haveri project

Source: Deccan Herald

While West Bengal is dithering over the policy of land acquisition for industrial development in the state, the Karnataka government has completed the land acquisition process for the integrated Tata Steel and Tata Metaliks project at Haveri district.


“The Karnataka government has acquired 2,500 acres at Haveri for the integrated plant of Tata Steel and Tata Metaliks,” Tata Steel vice-president (Corporate Services) Partha Sengupta told reporters on the sidelines of Global Investors’ Meet, 2012, roadshow of Karnataka industry and tourism ministries.

“The coal needed for the three million-tonne plant, to be operational in two years, will be imported. Iron ore will be sourced locally,” Sengupta said.

Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner of Industries of Karnataka government M Maheshwar Rao said: “The State government’s policy on land acquisition is to give compensation at market rates. Information Technology, biotechnology and aerospace were the three top industries where the State is on top. There are more than 500 multinational companies operating out of Karnataka, of which 80 belonged to the Fortune 500 list.

“The State has 58 Special Economic Zones creating more than 97,000 jobs.”

The press conference was a curtain raiser by the Karnataka government to woo investments from West Bengal by organising road shows ahead of the Global Investors Meet 2012 to be held in Bangalore in June this year.

“We welcome investments from industrialists of West Bengal in Karnataka,” Minister for Large and Small Industries Murugesh B Nirani said.

Notices have been issued to the farmers for acquiring 2,500 acre of land for Tata company’s proposed plant in Haveri. As many as 250 farmers will lose their land if the government goes ahead with the acquisition process. The land for the proposed factory is yet to be acquired.

The Tata company recently sponsored a trip for farmers to Jamshedpur and about 40 farmers visited the Tata plant to see its working and the welfare programmes taken up by the company for the affected farmers there.

IBM to set up office in Hubli

Source: The Hindu

The city, which is looking forward to inviting new Information Technology companies to improve the employment opportunities for software professional from this part of the country, has a good news in the form of software giant IBM, deciding to open an office in Vijayawada too during current calendar year. According to information the IBM will open 13 new branches in Kanpur, Patna, Ranchi, Nasik, Goa, Mysore, Vadodara, Hubli, Udaipur, Rajkot, Trichy, Vijayawada and Jammu, as part of their geographic expansion initiative of having their presence in 47 cities across India and South Asia.

When contacted the IBM officials did not confirm the news, but also did not deny. In 2011, they had launched 12 new branches. at Coimbatore, Indore, Guwahati, Raipur, Dehradun, Visakhapatnam, Trivandrum, Jamshedpur, Ludhiana, Surat, Nagpur and Mangalore. This will not only enhance IBM's client and partner relationships, but also improve their ability to deliver software solutions, technologies and services close to the client's location.

[Bellary] BUDA to acquire 100 acres to develop new layouts

Source: The Hindu

The general body of the Bellary Urban Development Authority (BUDA), which met here on Monday, approved the acquisition of land for development of layouts.

Chairman of the authority Vinodkumar presided over the meeting.

During the meeting, the participants were informed that farmers had offered to part with about 100 acres of land for the layouts. The farmers had been made aware of the BUDA rules. They had been told that as per Government directions, sites developed in the new layouts would be shared between landowners and BUDA in the ratio of 40:60.

Steps would soon be taken to estimate the cost of developing the layouts, conduct a feasibility study, and if found viable, a proposal would be sent to the Government for approval.

A proposal to construct two roads, estimated to cost Rs. 10 crore, which would be shared by both BUDA and the city corporation, was approved. While one road was proposed from T.B. Sanatorium to National Highway 63, the other one would be between the residence of the Superintendent of Police and the judges' quarters.

Other proposals

Proposals for completing an underground drainage system and civil works in Venkataram Nagar, fencing parks in Vijayanagar, Siddarth and Inna Reddy colonies, Gopalagowda Nagar Stage II, Tekur Subramanyam Park, and installation of lights in the cultural complex were approved.

Mr. Vinodkumar said that the authority wanted to acquire about 100 acres for developing layouts and allot sites to the poor. He said that a proposal to construct 90 commercial shops in the vacant space available on the BUDA office premises was unanimously approved.

G. Somashekara Reddy, MLA; Mrutyunjaya Jinaga, MLC; Amlan Aditya Biswas, Deputy Commissioner; D.L. Narayan, BUDA commissioner; and Murgannanavar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, were present.

Dharwad's truck terminal likely to be ready soon

Source: The Hindu

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The truck terminal at the Belur Industrial Area, near here, is expected to be ready for use by March.

It has been constructed by D. Devaraj Urs Truck Terminal Corporation Ltd. at a cost of Rs. 7.82 crore, and would be the first truck terminal in north Karnataka and the second in the State.

The first one was inaugurated in Mysore recently. The terminal is coming up on eight acres beside the main road of the industrial area.

It is expected to provide a safe and well-equipped parking facility for trucks and other heavy vehicles entering the industrial area.

At present, these vehicles are being parked on the roadside and the drivers lack proper facilities.

Unsystematic parking of vehicles is also creating traffic problems. Govind Tejwadekar, engineer in-charge of the project, said the truck terminal could accommodate 183 vehicles and 40 trailers at a time.

The terminal has a cafeteria, and a dormitory that can accommodate 100 drivers.

Space

“Space has been provided for a petrol station and a police station. Attention has also been given to ensure greenery. As many as 120 shade giving saplings have been planted and a garden is being developed on the terminal's premises,” Mr. Tejwadekar said.

Work on the terminal commenced in September 2010 and was expected to be completed in a year.

Mr. Tejwadekar said that the actual works started only by March last year as the site selected for the project was slushy.

“It took around six months to fill the land. Besides, certain changes in the original plan were made at the last minute. This delayed the completion of the work,” he said.

User-fee

It has been planned to maintain the terminal by collecting user-fee . Sources said a final decision would be taken upon completion of the work.