By Hritam Mukherjee and Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, July 17 (Reuters) - The state government of

Karnataka, home to India's tech hub Bengaluru, has approved a

bill mandating 50%-70% jobs for locals in companies, a move that

could make it harder for global firms operating there to attract

talent.

Bengaluru is home to about 14 million people, and thousands

of Indian startups and international firms ranging from Walmart ( WMT )

to Alphabet's Google operate from the

metropolitan city in south India. Infosys and Wipro

- two Indian tech giants - also operate from the city.

The draft bill, seen by Reuters, directs employers to hire

50% of local candidates in management jobs and 70% in

non-management jobs.

The bill will now need clearance of state legislature to

become law.

The bill also makes it mandatory for privately-owned

industries to hire 100 percent locals, colloquially known as

"Kannadigas", in blue collar jobs - ones that involve manual

labour, said state chief minister Siddaramaiah.

"It is our government's wish that the Kannadigas should

avoid being deprived of jobs ... and should be given an

opportunity to build a comfortable life in the motherland," said

a social media post by Siddaramaiah.

(Reportign by Hritam Mukherjee Haripriya Suresh; Additional

reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B, Ashwin Manikandan, Dimpal

Gulwani and Nishit Navin; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Christina

Fincher)