Davos, (Switzerland) NFAPost: Heads of multinational companies (MNCs) and Non-Resident Indian (NRI) entrepreneurs met Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the margins of the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit at Davos in Switzerland on Wednesday, a top official said.
“Heads of MNCs and NRIs met the Chief Minister at a breakfast meeting held at the Karnataka Pavilion, set up at the WEF meet to showcase the strengths of the southern state in attracting global investments,” said the official.
Among the heads were founder of India Diaspora in the US M R Rangaswami, Singapore-based Indorama Corporation Chairman Prakash Lohia, Japanese-based Hitachi Managing Director Bharat Kaul, and UAE-based VPS Healthcare Chairman Shamsheer Valayvil.
In a related development, global furniture and home accessories retailer Ikea Chief Executive Jester Brodin met Bommai at the summit on the fourth-day of the 5-day global event and discussed about the opening of its store in Bengaluru in June.
“Brodin invited the Chief Minister to the upcoming inauguration of Ikea store in the tech city (Bengaluru) in June,” said the official.
As the India head office of Ikea is in Bengaluru, issues such as use of bamboo and other local raw materials in making furniture were discussed during the meeting between Bommai and Brodin.
At a meeting with Axis Bank CEO Amitabh Chaudhry, the Chief Minister urged the private bank to join hands with the state government to upgrade educational institutes across the state.
“Bommai has urged the bank to upgrade engineering colleges and universities across the state under its corporate social responsibility(CSR) programmes,” said an official statement here.
As there are ample opportunities for the bank to take up various projects in association with the state government, Bommai told Chaudhry to upgrade some engineering colleges and universities across the state under its CSR initiatives.
The Chief Minister also asked Nokia head to make telecom products in the state.
“Nokia has its largest research centre in Bengaluru, with 7,000 technocrats engaged in research related to 5G, advanced 5G and 6G technologies,” said the statement.
The Chief Minister also met executives of online payment services gateway PayPal, which has a huge presence in tech-hub Bengaluru.
Leading edutech Byju’s founders Byju Raveendran and Divya and Meesho founder- Vidit Aatrey shared success stories of their start-ups and the role Bangalore start-up eco-system played in its phenomenal growth.
The state delegation made a compelling pitch to companies, investors and start-ups to invest in Karnataka. It also invited investors to attend the Global Investor Meet (GIM) to be held in Bengaluru in November./Eom/420 words.
