Karnataka bats for investments beyond choked Bengaluru
Bengaluru: As India’s tech hub is bursting at seams and reeling under infrastructure woes, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Thursday told the IT and biotech sectors to look beyond choked Bengaluru and invest in tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the southern state for uniform growth and all-round development cost-effectively.
“Our mission is to promote tier-2 and tier-3 cities like Belagavi, Hubbali-Dharwad, Mangaluru, Mysuru and Shivamogga as new investment centres across the state for the knowledge sector spanning IT and BT (biotech) to create more jobs and growth opportunities beyond Bengaluru,” Yediyurappa told captions of the IT-BT sectors in this tech hub.
To take the IT-BT sectors to cities and towns across the state, the chief minister said the state government would soon set up an innovation authority and vision group for start-ups that would require funding, mentoring and hand-holding to grow rapidly.
“As we recognise the role of the technology sectors in creating jobs and building the ecosystem for their growth, the state government will soon announce a revised IT policy to attract investments in cities beyond Bengaluru, which is a global brand,” said Yediyurappa.
The chief minister will be the chairman of the innovation authority with Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan as co-chairman, as he holds the portfolios of the IT, BT and Science and Technology.
Narayan is a three-time BJP legislator from the Malleshwaram assembly segment in Bengaluru north-west.
“We are working on a draft bill to set up regulatory sandboxes where innovative technologies can be tested in a controlled environment by relaxing regulatory compliance,” said Narayan.
To ensure the state remained a premier destination for innovation in the knowledge sector, Narayan said the IT-BT department would focus on skill development, incubating startups, forge global alliances and develop tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the state.
“The vision group for startups will provide insights to strengthen the ecosystem by replicating the best practices of the same in Bengaluru,” added the chief minister.
IT-BT department’s additional chief secretary E.V. Ramana Reddy said on the occasion that the government had played a key role in drawing new technologies to the state and creating a vast talent pool of skilled human resources for excellence in the hi-tech domain.
“We have set up a system of Global Innovation Alliances (GIAs) to explore collaboration with countries innovating at a rapid pace. We have 15 GIA partners and the stakeholders in these countries include governments, academic institutions, start-up incubators, universities and large tech firms,” said Reddy.
The department is also mulling an MNC (multinational company) engagement strategy for interaction with global firms and inputs from the industry to create action plans and address their issues.
