Karnataka govt to launch India's first GCC policy next month

Bengaluru: The draft policy on global capacity centres (GCC) being put together by the Karnataka government - the first of its kind in India - will be out next month. 

Announcing this at the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) Partners Meet on Tuesday, the state’s Information Technology / Biotechnology (IT/BT) minister, Priyank Kharge, also sought suggestions on the paper, once it is out, for improvement before the release of the policy itself.

"I think the stakeholders' feedback is very very important because this policy will not only be changing the dynamics of the Indian economy, but also will be changing the dynamics of the economies across the globe. Bengaluru has more than 400 GCCs, making it the leading destination for companies across Europe, as well as the Americas, to set up shop here,” he pointed out.

Karnataka is home to over 570 GCCs and leads the GCC talent market by a large margin. It’s also the hotspot for enterprise-building digital capabilities, software product innovation and platform engineering, according to the Karnataka GCC Landscape report released in July.

The draft GCC policy is being put together with the participation of industry leaders, academicians, entrepreneurs, and various other stakeholders, to help the state retain its leading position in the global GCC ecosystem, IT/BT secretary Ekroop Caur had said at the launch of the July report. 

Skilling policy for emerging technologies

Additionally, the state government is also planning to launch a skilling policy for emerging technologies with an outlay of Rs 100 crore, Kharge informed. Terming it ‘India’s best skilling programme’, he said that the policy will be released in a couple of days for which the state government is also looking at corporate partners to contribute to the policy with their corporate social responsibility funds. 

Emphasising on the skilling policy, Kharge said that his recent visits to US and Europe revealed that these countries are looking to tap into the Indian human capital. “So the idea is, we skill locally, but work globally,” commented Kharge.

5G, AI, blockchain, augmented reality and virtual reality, machine learning & deep learning are among the popular and in-demand emerging technologies in India.

K’taka to sign on Microsoft to help in skilling for GenAl

Karnataka government is poised to rope in global tech giant Microsoft for enhancing skills in generative AI with a memorandum of understanding set to be signed shortly to this end.

Pursuant to his meeting with Microsoft India team the industries minister MB Patil posted on the social media platform X “Had an insightful meeting with Puneet Chandok President India & South Asia Microsoft India.

We discussed potential collaborations for innovation-driven growth exploring cutting-edge software advancements and the ethical dimensions of AI. Excited about the future of technology in Karnataka and beyond.”

The meeting also focussed on Karnataka’s aim to be one of India's most AI-driven states for which Microsoft intends to bring in solution experts to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated into investor support processes within the Department of Commerce & Industries the minister explained in a note to press. 

The discussions also included the tech giant’s participation in the upcoming Global Investor Meet with a focus on collaboration with Invest Karnataka to showcase Microsoft’s innovations during the event Patil added.