Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said on Thursday that technology is the bedrock of investment in the state.
Delivering the inaugural speech at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018, the annual technology summit of the state government, Kumaraswamy said the summit is a unique platform for deliberating on innovation and its impact on industry and society at large.
"The 21st edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit is a celebration of unique eco-system of the state. Government, industry, academia and research and development institutions have partnered and created a unique eco-system here, which has given birth to several startups and innovative ideas," he said.
Kumaraswamy also pointed out that 65% of the MNCs who have their global in-house centres are from the USA and 37% of the GIC centres of MNCs are in Bengaluru. "This goes to prove that technology engagement in the State is the bedrock of the strong foundation for investments. Karnataka is indeed the first choice for technology investments, worldwide,” he said.
The Chief Minister said Karnataka has been consistently ranked high when it comes to foreign direct investments and employability. "The IT, BT and related sectors have provided direct employment to over a million people and indirect employment to 3 million people in Bengaluru alone. The number of engineering and R&D centres of Multi-National Companies in India has increased from 943 in 2016 to 976 in 2017 as per a study conducted by the consulting firm, Zinnov," he said.
Kumaraswamy also said the government is going ahead with its proposal to start Karnataka Innovation Authority to further fuel growth of innovation in the state. "Karnataka Innovation Authority will further help in giving a legal framework for IP creation in the state. Also, we want blockchain based IP protection," he said.
The CM also said the government will also set up a Centre of Excellence for the design of tech products in Bengaluru. "Additionally, to help backward regions such as Hyderabad-Karnataka, the Elevate programme has been taken to the region and ten startups have been selected who will be funded Rs 1.11 crore this year," Kumaraswamy said.
The Chief Minister also released ‘Innovate Bengaluru’, an augmented reality embedded book at the event.
Speaking at the event, Karnataka Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT, Science and Technology K J George said Karnataka is the choice for innovators and global industry leaders to converge and showcase viability of current and emerging technologies.
"In fact, Karnataka was the first in the country to recognise the growing importance of Information Technology and Biotechnology. Karnataka believes in designing policies to suit the changing needs of the sectors. The emerging disruptive technologies have been taken into consideration while framing the policies for IT, BT, electronics and animation and gaming," he said.
George also pointed out that the state is giving primacy to startup to focus on frontier technology areas like AI, ML, robotics and blockchain among others. "The government has set up 33 Incubation centres across the state and a grant of Rs 40 lakhs per college is also provided. We are setting up incubation centres and accelerators in PPP mode," he said.
Karnataka Minister for Revenue minister R V Deshpande and Social Welfare department Minister Priyank M. Kharge also spoke at the function. Besides the ambassador of France Alexander Ziegler and Queensland Tade and Investment Strategy Minister Kate Jones, the event is also attended by Israeli Counsel General Dana Kursh, Japanese Counsel General Takayuki Kitagawa.
The three-day summit is attracting over 10000 visitors, 200+ visionary speakers, 200+ startups and global leaders from 11 countries.
The inaugural event also witnessed the announced of 20 winners from 68 countries participated in the Humane Code – Global Hackathon as part of the Bengaluru Tech Summit.
The 25-day virtual global hackathon was conducted in collaboration with Global Innovation Alliance Partners and Startup Innovation Hubs to create solutions that address local/global societal needs.