The Karnataka government deliberated on conceptualisation of the development of Knowledge, Healthcare, Innovation and Research (KHIR) City on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The government aims to attract Rs 40,000 crore investment in the areas of healthcare, innovation and knowledge sectors besides creating 80,000 jobs in the proposed KHIR City.

The new investment region will be spread over 2,000 acres within 60 kms from Bengaluru and developed in a phased manner.

Addressing the Ideation Session for setting up KHIR City, M B Patil, honourable minister for large and medium industries and infrastructure development said, "We are embarking on a transformative journey to build a city that goes beyond conventional boundaries — a Knowledge, Healthcare, Innovation & Research City (KHIR City).”

"Apart from ensuring job creation and attracting investments from leading global and Indian hospitals and research centres, universities and private companies, the initiative has the potential to contribute towards the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to increased economic activity. “Besides attracting investments, it is aimed at contributing at least Rs 1 lakh crore to the state GDP,” Patil said.

The captains of Indian industry drawn from healthcare, medical education, real estate, financial services and insurance sectors attended the ideation session and shared their suggestions. 

With Karnataka being home to 60 per cent of India’s biotech companies and over 350 medical devices and supplies manufacturers across categories, the development of KHIR near Bengaluru, the fastest-growing innovation cluster globally, augurs as an ideal location. 

Speaking on the occasion, Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT/BT, and S&T said that KHIR City will be the first such centre of knowledge which will have innovators from healthcare, knowledge and global research centres coming together in one place. “Bengaluru will transform from being a call centre of the world to global centre of research and innovation,” he said.

The government is planning to come out with a separate policy to promote the medical tourism in the state, said Kharge.

The establishment of KHIR City has a strong global reference point with the Government of Karnataka aiming to bring this research city in line with Singapore’s Biopolis Cluster or Japan’s Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster.

"There is a need to build neurology institute and genetics here as it is expensive to send it to other states and countries," said Dr C N Manjunath, Director of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

The industry representatives also suggested to the government to look at improving the skills of workers in the state that will be required for the setting up of knowledge city. They also suggested to focus on life sciences and look at holding a roadshow to attract capital into this sector. 

“There is shortage of 50-70 million healthcare workers in the country. A Paramedical university is the urgent need. We want to set that up in the country because it is the nurses and other staff that takes care of the patient and not the doctors,” said Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, Founder and Chairman of Narayana Health.