Karnataka’s information technology and its youthful start-up prowess is now globally known and acknowledged. “What is not so well known is the strength of its institutions, its industry, its people and places. ,with every Wipro, we have a Mangalayaan, with every Flipkart, we have a Tejas light combat aircraft and sophisticated drones and with every Narayana Murthy, we have a CNR Rao,” said Karnataka Industries Minister RV Deshpande.

Addressing the 14th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet, Deshpande pitched for investments in tourism especially to woo youths. “Karnataka is not all (high-technology), we have world heritage sites, deep woods, sandy beaches and some of the widest range of wildlife.”

“We also have India’s best sporting academies and adventure sports. Most importantly, we have the most social and cultured people you will find anywhere in the world,” he added.

Deshpande said “the Karnataka government has embarked on a road map towards improving everything we have and examining and implementing everything that is new and innovative, aimed at enhancing the experience of every citizen in this state — whether you are a Nivasi or a Pravasi.”

Disruptive tech As IT & ITeS matures as a sector in Karnataka, the government is planning to change its perception and looks at embracing disruptive technologies to reposition itself.

Speaking at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ session on ‘Fuelling growth through disruptive innovations: Start-up ecosystem in Karnataka’, Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information Technology, Biotechnology and Tourism, said “People, corporates and government have always associated ‘BengaluruITE.biz’ with IT & ITeS. Now, we needed to change that perception because IT & ITeS have matured as a sector in Karnataka and we need to do something disruptive to reposition ourselves.”

“In order to redefine BengaluruITE.biz, theme ‘Define the Next’ was chosen after great deliberation as the focus of the state going forward to be creative and disruptive and emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, robotics, aerospace, DefTronics, cyber security, Big Data Analytics, machine learning among various other verticals are being explored. We have taken a call to ensure we emerge as the innovation leaders right from agriculture to aerospace,” he added.

As these disruptive innovations are happening very rapidly in India, today we are considered as one of the best ecosystems in the world for innovations that has the potential to catapult the economy, he further added.

Karnataka is home to over 4,900 start-ups as per global start-ups eco-system ranking report of 2015. “Under our multi-sector policy, we are aiming at stimulating growth of 20,000 tech start-ups, including 6,000 product start-ups by 2020. We have established one of the best start-up eco-systems in the country and are confident of achieving the objectives set forth in the multi-sector start-up policy,” explained Kharge.

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