Karnataka Govt And IT Industry, A Dialogue For Future, And Continued Engagement To Strengthen The Ecosystem

Mumbai : Today, the state government of Karnataka took a further step to solidify its position as the leader in the science, information and biotechnology sectors in the country. A dialogue and interaction with all industry and government stakeholders was held today, organised by the department of IT, BT, and S&T of the Government of Karnataka, to discuss the ecosystem challenges and opportunities in the IT and related sectors, as well as to strengthen industry-government relationship and to chart the future path for the state. The interaction was also to announce the BTS 2019 plan drafted by the state government.

Led by the Honourable Deputy Chief Minister Dr. G Parameswara, who also holds additional charge as Minister for IT, BT, S&T, the interaction and discussion addressed policy making, infrastructure and other the unique challenges of the industry, today. Senior leaders from the industry, technology experts, R&D professionals, and international trade bodies and delegations – members of the Global Innovation Alliance, participated in the interaction at the Taj West End in Central Bengaluru.

Delivering his keynote address at the event, Dr. G. Parameshwara highlighted the efforts taken by the Government to strengthen the IT & BT, S&T ecosystem in Bengaluru and to create further areas of opportunity and growth across the state. He congratulated the ecosystem partners for contributing towards making Bengaluru a hub of IT & BT, S&T and helping Karnataka in being a home to global captive centres and assured complete support from the State Government towards strengthening these sectors. He stressed on the need to create a talent pool and updating the syllabus at institutional level in order to keep our home talents up-to-date about the ever-changing technology and innovation in the global level.

NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh, remarked that Karnataka is seen as the leader of India but raised a pertinent question that What do we have to do to stay relevant and stay as leaders? The talent in the state will make a biggest differentiation. To encourage talent, All of us in the state must be able to access skills and technology. The Minister was asked to enable a business model which will allow companies to co-create.

Spread over three sessions, the interaction consisted of a breakfast meeting with CEOs and heads of the leading IT, BT, AVGC, ESDM and startups and heads of industry associations. The honourable Dy CM and IT Minister focused on the need to invest in the human potential and to ensure a future ready workforce. He stressed on the need for training and development, and to invest in R&D facilities.

Vijay Ratnaparkhe, R&D Centre, Bosch noted that there are new opportunities for smart cities and there is a need to leverage the talent in Bangalore and Karnataka to solve the problems such as traffic.He suggested throwing challenges like traffic to public and run it up as quiz in order to receive better solutions. He also suggested using data analytics for health care. Vijay also requested for a competence centre for electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles which could not only solve the city’s but also world’s problems.

Nivrutti Rai from Intel said that there is a need to work closely with government in order to develop basic necessities like infrastructure. She noted that Karnataka needs to focus on connectivity and network, security and AI as they will power agriculture and smart mobility etc.

The Deputy CM also held one-on-one interactions with leaders to discuss specific issues and opportunities. The final session saw trade bodies, international delegations and members of the Global Innovation Alliance reaffirm their support for the IT BT sectors in Karnataka, and discuss further avenues for cooperation. This session also saw participation from the heads of various startups and firms that took part in the incubation and accelerator programmes of the state, including winners of Elevate and Grand Challenge. This networking session allowed these young entrepreneurs to strengthen their ties with industry and government.

Professor Vijay Chandru, IISc, spoke about genomics and said there is a need to in larger components of bio science in to work. He said that the idea of Karnataka genome centre is being worked on. He suggested that Karnataka can work on translational research in rare diseases, which are strengths of the state. He stressed on the idea of digital hospitals which can be beneficial at a larger extent

Dr. G Parameshwara emphasized on the need to hold interactions of similar manner in future in order to make Bengaluru a livable, innovative and leading city. He said a meeting with leading industry leaders every quarter or six months would be ideal so as to make Bengaluru a centre of excellence in every sector. He expressed happiness to have taken part in the interaction programme and assured that the interactions with the ecosystem partners will take place more often in the future.