Electric car maker Tesla Inc is in discussions with the industries department of Karnataka government to set up a centre in Bengaluru to leverage the large research and development (R&D) ecosystem in India’s technology capital.
“The first proposal is for an R&D centre and we have already had at least two rounds of discussions,” said one official from the department, requesting not to be named.
The Economic Times first reported this story on Monday.
The development would bring in one of the biggest electric car makers in the world to Karnataka and would bump up the state’s image with a high-profile and news making investor marking its presence in a city that is already known as a R&D hub for sectors such as aviation, biotechnology, and information technology.
Bengaluru is home to several other large R&D centres, which include General Electric’s first and largest global lab outside the US, John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC), IBM, Samsung and around 400 others.
Talks to set up an R&D centre comes a year after Tesla chief Elon Musk expressed his intent to have a presence in India although he had earlier blamed restrictive policy that delayed entry into the world’s fourth largest automobile market.
The India head of Tesla and the industries commissioner of Karnataka are expected to meet again later this month, the official cited above said.
IKEA, the Swedish furniture retail giant from Ingka Group had last week said they will open a new global office in Bengaluru to operate within areas of Global Business Operations (GBO), Digital, and Centres of Expertise (CoE).
Karnataka, like its counterparts, is actively seeking out new investments to kickstart the fledgeling economy that was set back due to the covid-19 induced lockdown.
