Zero MoU at Davos, but Karnataka ministerreturns with big investment hopes

Bengaluru: Industries minister MB Patil Saturday said he had bilateral engagements with 46 global and Indian companies, investors and country leaders at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, adding that while there were discussions on investment intent, no memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed."We held 46 bilateral engagements with global and Indian companies, investors, academic institutions and country leaderships at the World Economic Forum," Patil said at a press conference.These included engagements with 26 international companies and over 15 Indian companies across aerospace and defence, advanced manufacturing, food processing, space tech, life sciences, data centres, digital infrastructure and clean energy, he added.Asked about MoUs during WEF, he said, "We consciously decided not to sign MoU at Davos because we wanted the investors to come to Karnataka and see for themselves the resources, talent pool and policies for investors," Patil said.Another reason for not signing MoUs there was that it was not proper to sign deals with Indian companies abroad, as it would look odd, he added.The minister said Karnataka has emerged from the WEF event with a strong and credible pipeline of global investments, partnerships and expansion proposals across priority sectors, underlining the govt's focus on swift execution rather than mere announcements.Patil said the discussions translated into a robust investment pipeline. "From Davos, Karnataka has advanced a strong, credible pipeline of investments, expansions and partnerships across aviation and logistics, beverages and food processing, clean energy manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, space tech, data centres and GCC and R&D," he said.According to the minister, the visit also featured govt-to-govt engagements."We had focused G2G discussions with Liechtenstein and Singapore to strengthen institutional collaboration and jointly attract investments into Karnataka," he said.Patil said the delegation also interacted with global thought leaders."We engaged with people like Gita Gopinath of IMF and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath to exchange perspectives on global macroeconomic trends, entrepreneurship and India's evolving role in the global economy," he added.Referring to meetings with WEF leadership, Patil said, "We met John Dutton, head of UpLink, and Sean Doherty, head of international trade and investment at WEF, to deepen Karnataka's strategic engagement with WEF platforms, explore collaboration across innovation, trade and sustainability, and strengthen Karnataka's positioning within global initiatives."According to the minister, discussions at Davos focused on practical enablers for investment. "There was clear interest in support mechanisms for marquee investments in tier-2 and tier-3 locations, expansion of GCCs, including in tier-2 cities, grid stability and power reliability for data centres, and water security and smart water management," he said.Patil said Karnataka showcased its execution readiness. "Across all interactions, we positioned Karnataka as India's leading platform for AI talent, GCCs and clean manufacturing, backed by policy facilitation and strong ecosystem partnerships," he said.The minister added that the state was also projected as a preferred destination for next-generation industries such as AI, data centres, semiconductors and space tech.He said the companies engaged during the visit included Coca-Cola, Lenovo, Welspun Group, Amazon Web Services, Nokia, PayPal, Schneider Electric, Cloudflare, Mistral AI, Octopus Energy, Axon Cables, Xylem, Voyager Technologies and Vast Space, with several discussions moving into advanced-stage follow-ups and grounding discussions in Karnataka.