K'taka govt, Foxconn sign Letter of Intent for two marquee projects with Rs 5,000 crore investment
Bengaluru, Aug 2: The Karnataka government on Wednesday said it has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Foxconn, a major iPhone assembler for tech giant Apple, to undertake two marquee projects in the state with an estimated investment worth Rs 5,000 crore.
The projects would create employment opportunities for 13,000 people in the state, it said.
The signing ceremony took place between a high-level delegation of the Government of Karnataka and Foxconn in Chennai recently, where Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil and Minister for IT and BT, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge along with senior officials met Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and other executives of the company.
The two projects are: phone enclosure project under which the Foxconn subsidiary plans to invest USD 350 million (Rs 3,000 crore) with employment opportunities for 12,000 people, and semicon equipment project in collaboration with Applied Materials with a projected investment of USD 250 million (Rs 2,000 crore) and employment generation for 1,000 people.
The LoI outlined the framework for the two projects that Foxconn plans to establish in the state, an official release said, adding that the Karnataka government reaffirmed its commitment to providing a supportive environment for businesses to thrive.
"The meeting between Foxconn Chairman and the Government of Karnataka holds immense promise for the economic landscape of the state, with potential benefits in terms of employment generation, technology advancement, and overall socio-economic growth. The LOIs between Foxconn and Government of Karnataka will boost investments in the State," Patil said.
"It is a significant opportunity for Foxconn to engage with the Government of Karnataka and move forward with the establishment of these ventures. The projects will significantly contribute to the state's economic growth and foster employment opportunities for thousands of skilled individuals," he added.
Foxconn's Chairman Young Liu, was quoted in the statement as saying: "We are excited about the possibilities that Karnataka offers for our expansion plans in India. The state's conducive business environment, coupled with its skilled workforce, makes it an attractive destination for our high-tech ventures. We look forward to building our success story with the state."
The location for this project is likely to be finalised at Haraluru Muddenahalli - Hi-Tech Aerospace and Defence Park-Phase II in Bengaluru Rural district, where Foxconn has sought a 35-acre land parcel.
Regarding the phone enclosure manufacturing project, the Industries department said Foxconn is setting up a facility for manufacturing sub-assembly components for smartphones, specifically mechanical enclosures of iPhones. The company is currently evaluating suitable land parcels in and around Bengaluru.
On the Semicon equipment manufacturing project, it said Foxconn is collaborating with Applied Materials on a project for manufacturing semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
FoxSemicon Integrated Technologies manufactures sophisticated subassemblies for Applied Materials, a semiconductor and display equipment manufacturer.
Separately, Applied Materials has also recently announced a USD 400 million investment to set up its collaborative engineering centre in India at Bengaluru that will work with both domestic and global suppliers to drive semiconductor manufacturing equipment R&D for the next level of innovation and commercialisation of technologies.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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