After a kick-start, twin cities see halting industrialization

Since the setting up of Tata Marcopolo Motors in Dharwad in 2009, the twin-cities have not had any large investment from big business houses. Despite the vows of chief minister Siddaramaiah, people said their farewells to the much-hyped Hero Motors project. Another mega proposal -the Arcelor MittalSAIL venture -has also been forgotten.

But things are changing here, in a lower key. Infosys is setting up a new unit on 17.42 acres at a cost of around Rs 3,000 crore.

Indo-American venture capitalist Gururaj Deshpande is trying to make the region more startup-friendly through his Deshpande Foundation. Its programmes like Lead, Navodyami and Sandbox are improving ecosystem for startups in the region.

Magsaysay awardee Harish Hande has provided solar power to over 100 houses on a partnership basis with beneficiaries. His Selco foundation is slowly building a generation of social entrepreneurs.

"Companies are hesitating to invest here because of the lack of infrastructure and negligence of the government, besides the high cost of land," says Vasant Ladawa, former president of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Abhi Rajmane, a US-based NRI, who claim to have invested Rs 50 lakh here, says lack of infrastructure forces investors to look more at developing human capital. "We feel we can contribute after changing the way the man on the street thinks about entrepreneurship," he says.

MLA Aravind Bellad, also an entrepreneur, believes this is not enough. "Though there are some philanthropic activities, a lot needs to be done to give a cosmopolitan look to the city" he says.