Bengaluru, Around 23 companies in diverse sectors spanning aerospace, defence, electric vehicles and data centres signed an agreement with the Karnataka government to invest cumulatively Rs 28,000 crore and create over 15,000 direct jobs, an official said on Thursday.

The agreements were signed by representatives of the 20 firms with the state industries department in the presence of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, state Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan and Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar at 'Invest Karnataka Conclave' in this tech city.

Among top companies which signed agreements to invest in the state are the US-based C4V (Rs 4,015 crore) to make Lithium ion batteries, Singapore-based LNG Alliance to set up a liquified natural gas terminal (Rs 2,250 crore) and Adani Data Centre (Rs 5,000 crore) to set up data centres.

"The agreements demonstrate the confidence of companies to invest in the state, which was severely affected by the Covid pandemic that broke out in mid-March a year ago," said Yediyurappa on the occasion.

Amid the pandemic's first and second waves since March 2020, the chief minister said the state government had cleared 520 projects with investment proposals worth Rs 77,000 crore during the last 14-15 months.

"In addition, there are investment proposals worth Rs 23,000 crore that are in the process for approvals. They will take the total investment proposals to Rs 1-lakh crore in the state," said Yediyurappa in his address at the conclave.

Of the total investment, proposals worth Rs 28,600 crore were received during the last 6 months amid the pandemic from leading Indian and global firms, said the official.

"We want to not only retain Karnataka as a global manufacturing hub, but also make the state a part of the global supply chain. As part of our strategy to go beyond Bengaluru, we are promoting tier-2 and tier-3 cities to attract investments in multiple sectors," said the chief minister.

As part of the new 5-year industrial policy (2020-2024), Shettar said the state government was developing a toy cluster at Koppal, consumer electronics cluster at Dharwad and pharmaceuticals cluster at Yadgir in the state's northwest and northern regions.

"As the state's economic and industrial development has been a priority for us, the new policy is investor-centric to build a prosperous Karnataka and create thousands of jobs," added Shettar.

The NITI Aayog think tank has ranked the southern state at the top of its Innovation Index in 2020 due to the availability of quality human resources, research and development (R&D) centres, reputed higher education institutes, proactive administration and conducive investment climate.

C4V chief executive officer Shailesh Upreti, LNG Alliance chief executive Muthu Chezhian, Adani Data Centre business head Sanjay Bhutani and Shree Cements president Sanjay Mehta participated in the conclave.