It is said that Germany ranks eighth in the list of India’s top import partners with India exporting $ 7.7 billion worth of goods to the country. Holding such strong relations with Europe’s seventh largest country, Karnataka chose to probe further on how the two countries can be of mutual benefit to the larger ecosystem at ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’.

Today, Karnataka is a major playing ground for eight of Germany’s biggest companies like Bosch and Siemens, according to Hubert Reilard, President of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

With as many as 60 partnerships under the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Hubert explained why Karnataka remains to be a good playing field for the Germans. He said that while growth of the German companies seems obvious, India holistically adds and connects these German to a lot of companies and countries in Asia helping them expand their base.

Also, operation in Bengaluru seems like an ideal for him since the European market is weak with high unemployment rates. Moreover, since research and innovation is a cornerstone of Indo-German relations, Karnataka provides the right academic and skills support to foster and strengthen the bond.

In April 2007, Bavaria established a MoU. Since then, Karnataka has been on the high road of economic barter with the German state.

Barters

• Bavaria is headquarters to industry giants like Adidas, BMW, MAN, Allianz, and Siemens. India’s total imports were valued at 1.4 billion euros and exports were 943 million euros in 2013.

• Bavaria has the second largest Indian community in Germany, with almost 12,000 Indians residing in the German state. Munich alone has about 2,600 Indian citizens.

Initiatives

• Through the partnership, as many as 70 Indian companies have already set shop in Bavaria to get access to the European Union. Some of them are TCS, LT Infotech, which opened their RD centre, and Wipro with offices in Nuremberg and Munich.

• Bavaria has introduced 30 academic exchange programmes with Indian universities and a brand new subject on German Indian Management Studies at Hof University.

• The Fraunhofer Society, inventors of white LED lights and MP3 software for phones, has its only sub-continent presence in Bengaluru. The society facilitates annual researches of almost two billion euros annually, filing as many as two new patents every day.

• Since the opening of the institute in 2012, 100 innovation projects worth eight million have been pursued.

Similarities

• Bavaria and Karnataka are both considered great investment destinations for information and technology, biotechnology, medical technology, and aerospace. Thus, sharing their IP to strengthen their presence as markets.

• Bavaria and Karnataka are both patent champions in their own rights. Bavaria constitutes to 26.4 per cent of Germany’s patent applications, while Bengaluru in Karnataka has the largest number of international patent applications in India.

• Bavaria is the German state with the highest number of startups, while Bengaluru is considered a Mecca for startups contributing to 41 per cent of all the new ventures launched in India, according to World Startup Report in 2013.

• Bavaria is the information and technology destination for Germany contributing close to 25 per cent of the value creation for the country, while there is no doubt that Bengaluru in Karnataka is considered to be the technology capital of India.