January 19 

Karnataka joins the beeline of Indian States inviting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to set up company’s EV manufacturing plant. Murugesh R Nirani, Minister of Large and Medium Industries, government of Karnataka, yesterday invited Elon Musk to set up his Tesla plant in Bengaluru.

The Minister said in a tweet, “With over 400 R&D centres, 45+ EV startups & an EV cluster near Bengaluru, Karnataka has emerged as EV hub of India. Mr @elonmusk, Karnataka would be an ideal destination to set up @Tesla plant. Bengaluru is already Tesla’s maiden address in India.”

The Minister’s tweet was welcomed by some Twitterati while others questioned the lack of basic infrastructure in the city.

Mixed response by social media users

A Twitter user, Nataraj (@MrNatarajSir) wrote, “Come @elonmusk come. There is no State better than Karnataka in India. Similarly no city is better than Bangalore. @NiraniMurugesh”. On the other hand, Mithilesh Kumar (@mithilesh_k) said,“First, give roads for Tesla car (to) move in Bengaluru!”

On January 13, while replying to a question posed by a Twitter handle saying, “Yo @elonmusk any further update as to when Tesla’s will launch in India”, Elon Musk wrote, “Still working through a lot of challenges with the government.”

The list of interested States, that have invited Elon Musk include Telangana, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka has been actively contributing to building an EV Ecosystem in the State. In December 2020, the Karnataka government had approved ₹224.19 billion to establish an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing base in the State and another ₹42.40 billion for two wind-solar hybrid projects. Later in March 2021, the State had also proposed setting up a 500 MW solar park at Firozabad in Kalaburagi district in the State budget 2021-22.

With inputs from Isha Rautela

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