Economy of Hubli

Hubli-Dharwad is the second largest city in Karnataka. It is one of the 49 Metropolitan clusters selected by McKinsey & Company as growth hotspots in India.^[1] It is the 2nd highest revenue generator for Karnataka and 22nd for India interms of income-tax.^[2] It is also the most important city in terms of administration, business and commerce in Karnataka after Bangalore.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} It is the nerve center for North Karnataka region. It is the fastest growing city after the capital, Bangalore and Mangalore.^[8] It is home to the Headquarters of South Western Railway, and the Hubli Division of SWR is one of the highest revenue generating railway divisions in India. The High Court Of Karnataka is situated at Belur in Hubli-Dharwad. It also has the largest number of government offices outside Bangalore and is hence called the second capital of Karnataka. The Agriculture Produce market at Amargol in Hubli is one of the largest markets in Asia and the cotton market is among the largest cotton markets in India. The city has earned the nickname of "Shikshana Kashi" due to the large number of educational Institutions. The city is home to 4 universities and 2 deemed universities, and also has over 200 colleges. The University of Agricultural Sciences and the Karnataka Universities are internationally acclaimed universities for the quality of research and teaching. The city is a major industrial center and the railway workshop setup in 1880 is one of the oldest workshops in India. It is also the largest holder of EMD locomotives of Indian Railway. The city is home to Tata Motors, Marcopolo, Hitachi Construction Equipments, Telcon and Sankalp Semiconductors, among others. Infosys is about to commence operations from Hubli with a campus of over 50 acres.

Industrial profile

The Hubli-Dharwad neighbourhood is the second largest commercial and industrial hub of activities in the State of Karnataka.^[9] It has bee a home of textile units since ages. As early as 1683, the Britishers established a textiles unit at Hubli. It was followed by Mahadev Textile Mills ( which was known as Bharat Mill) in 1898. The Mahadev Textile Mills and Hubli Railway Workshop individually employed as many as ten to fifteen thousand workmen constituting almost 40% of the population of the then city of Hubli. During the Swedeshi Movement in 1905-06, Mangalore Tiles Manufacturing Company, Sugar Units, bangle manufacturing units, etc. were started,which, however did not survive for long. In 1907, the municipal units, a railway workshop and the southern Maratha Spinning and Weaving Mill were established.^[10]

Desai and Company was established in 1939. They were dealing with the products of Massey Ferguson, Tafe Tractors in the early days and later added Bajaj Tempo and Matadors. Prabhat & Company started in 1943 manufactured rolling shutters, cabinets, furniture, etc. The business houses of M/s. N.A. Shirur and Co., M/s Jigalur Oil Mills. M/s Hosmani & Co., M/s Shettar Iron Works, M/s Shriram Flour Mill, M/s.Tammappanna Kousali have contributes in no small measures to the industrial development as well as promotion of trade and commerce in this region. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the large-scale industries, namely Mysore Kirloskar Ltd. ( Later expanded into 3 units), Kirloskar Electric Company, Akay Industries, BDK Group of Companies, Micrifinish Groupof Companies, Sagun Copper Conductors Pvt. Ltd, etc. came to be establishes. BDK and Microfinish earned goodwill for themselves as reputed units for manufacturing industrial valves required for chemical refineries. Microfinish has associated itself with a company in USA to explore global requirements. The closure of some induatrial units like Kirloskar, etc. has strongly affected the engineering industry of this region. The Walchandnagar Groups TIWAC Industry was set up for manufacturing Alarm Clocks, Bhorula Textils was set up in 1981 for the manufacture of Synthetic Clothes. Some industries of this region, especially the cattle and poultry units collaborated with the national branded firms like Godrej and Hindustan Lever Ltd. Since the late eighties and early nineties, a number of industries have started functioning. A mention may be made of Bellad and Co., LVT Products, Mahant Engineering Works, Airtech Engineers, Jyoti Engineering Works, Precision Engineering, Agva Fun Foods Ltd, Shakti Spun Pipes, Nectar Beverages, Kat Ltd, Murdeshwar Ceramics, Karnataka Cement Pipe Industries, Etc. Recently a division of TELCO, a division of Tata Company has also been started in Dharwad. Besides, there are a number of steel furniture manufacturing units which directly or indirectly employs thousands of people and are mostly located in the Old Hubli and Central Hubli. Also the business of poultry and broilers is steadily employing hundreds of people which is noteworthy.

A host of factors can be attributed to the industrial growth of this region. A mention may be made of the basic infrastructural facilities including roads, railway and other means of communication: networking electric grids, transmission lines and service stations: banking facilities. Karnatak State Financial Corporation (KSFC) with its divisional office at Hubli with branches at Hubli, Gadag and Haveri: the head office of CEDOK, i.e, Centre For Entrepreneurship Development of Karnataka, at Dharwad: Karnataka Material Testing & Research Centre at the industrial estate in Hubli and a material testing centre at Gadag set up by NKSSIA and Gadag Industrial Cooperative Society respectively for the purpose of providing testing facilities.

The Govt. of Karnataka has set up various institutions like District Industries Centre (DIC), Karnataka Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (KSSIDC), Small Industries Service Institute (SISI), Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO) and other organisations like Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), North Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (NKSSIA), etc., to address the issues and needs of its member industries. The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has been instrumental in developing industrial areas at Lakamanhalli (7318 acres), Sattur (78 acres), Rayapur ( 200 acres), Tarihal ( 256 acres) and Belur (92,150 acres). The Central Government has declared Belur Industrial Area as the “Growth Centre” and has been sponsoring the development of infrastructure including water supply scheme, captive power plant, etc.. Most attractive incentives and concessions have been announced by the State Government for the industries that would come in the area of Growth centre. Further, an electronic city is also being established in Dharwad along with Software Technology Park (STP). This would give impetus to high technology industries. As per the Govt. of Karnataka Prospective plan for Dharwad District (2001–06), the potential industries likely to come up in this part of the region include food and beverages, textiles, wood and wood products, leather and leather products, rubber, plastic, chemical and chemical products, glass ceramics, basic metal and metal products, general engineering and machine parts, automobile and transport equipments, job work, repair, servicing and miscellaneous products.

Small-scale industries

Hubli-Dharwad is the centre of small-scale industries and ancillary units. There are large number of small-scale industries in Hubli-Dharwad. The total number of small-scale industries in Dharwad is 2774 while there are 4933 small-scale industrial units in Hubli. In the small-scale sector the main products of manufacture are agro products, engineering products, machine tools, chemical and pharmaceutical products, industrial valves manufactured in Hubli meet the nation's major share of requirements.

Industrial areas

There are 7 industrial estates / areas in Hubli –Dharwad city. The government has set up the following industrial estates in view of the potential for industrialisation in the area.

• Belur Industrial Area
• Tarihal Industrial Area
• Lakamanahalli Industrial Area
• Sattur Industrial Area
• Rayapur Industrial Area
• Gokul Industrial Estate-I
• Gokul Industrial Estate-II

Agriculture

Important crops in Dharwad district are Jowar, maize, wheat, cotton, onions and rice are grown. The district also grows mangoes and bananas as horticultural produce. There are many subsidiary agricultural industries such as the production of puffed rice, beaten rice, and edible oils.Hubli is the main trading centre for agriculture produce. Farmers not only from Karnataka, but from elsewhere sell their produce here. Hubli has a large APMC market at Amargol located between Hubli and Dharwad. Hubli APMC is an important market for red chillies, onions, rice, cotton and jowar. Hubli-Dharwad city has many medium and small-sized industries producing engineering items, electrical goods and agricultural implements. There are several cotton spinning and ginning mills.^[11]

References