Karnataka brings all innovation initiatives under one umbrella

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Karnataka government has brought all the emerging technology innovation initiatives of the government under one umbrella named 'Innovate Karnataka', to make the state a premier global destination for innovation.

‘Innovate Karnataka’ will be spearheaded by the Department of Innovation and Technology- a rechristened and more advanced version of the state's Department of Information Technology & Biotechnology.

‘Innovate Karnataka’ will act as an umbrella brand for all the innovation in the state, whether it’s in the field of emerging technologies such as blockchain, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, etc. or in the vibrant startup ecosystem of the state.

Speaking on the vision behind of creating this brand new initiative, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “No innovation is truly big unless it helps people. With ‘Innovate Karnataka’, we hope to start on the path to Mission 2025: where technology will help in the inclusive development of the state, where better governance can be delivered to the citizens."

The vision of ‘Innovate Karnataka’ is to see Karnataka as a global first choice of innovation and technology by adopting policies which spur 100% digitization of health, agriculture and other domains and enable inclusive digital growth across geographies and all strata of society, said he.

Speaking on the need for putting innovation first, IT & BT minister, Priyank Kharge said, “Already, we are spearheading the startup movement in India, and ensuring that we’re at the forefront of blockchain, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence innovation. Now, it’s time to take Karnataka into a safe, secure future where technology solves real problems.”

The minister also announced a roadmap for use of blockchain technology in Karnataka, and said that it will be used extensively in governance and service delivery, in a manner that has maximum social impact.

As these will require a large scale reskilling of the current and future workforce, Karnataka government has earmarked a sum of Rs 40 lakh per college to spend on various skill development programmes.

The government has also  launched several Centres of Excellence (CoE) across Karnataka including the CoE for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, in association with Nasscom; CoE for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics, in association with ABAI; CoE for Machine Learning & Robotics at IIITB; CoE for Cyber Security.

An Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) Cluster was announced for Mysore, and a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Incubator in Hubli was also launched. An amount of Rs 4cr will be spent on each facility.

To ease the access to ‘Innovate Karnataka’, the government has also launched two portals- The Yuva Yuga portal which will act as the one-stop-shop for all the information related to the state’s skill development program, and the e-Margadarshi which will help the youth who are looking for employment to fulfill their dreams.