<p>Karnataka’s IT exports jumped 27 per cent to Rs 3.2 lakh crore in the previous financial year, making up for 42 per cent of India’s total share, and the government wants to continue this momentum by attracting both domestic and foreign companies to set up shop in the state. With Bengaluru -India’s Silicon Valley, bursting at its seams, the state is actively promoting other towns as new hubs for the technology industry. On the sidelines of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023, Department of IT & BT Secretary <strong>Ekroop Caur</strong> speaking to <em>DH</em>’s <strong>Anjali Jain</strong> shed light on how the summit helped propel these plans further, and what is in store for emerging clusters at Mysuru and Mangaluru.</p>.<p>Edited Excerpts.</p>.<p><strong>Can you give an overview of how meetings at the sidelines of BTS have panned out?</strong></p>.<p>In terms of our business meetings, we've had very good meetings with a lot of partner nations. We have the Global Innovation Alliance with 35 partner countries. So we've had meetings with almost all of them by now. And some new initiatives will emerge out of this. Some partnerships, in terms of them participating in the ecosystem, being part of our centres of excellence, and also joining hands to bring more investment and companies to India. There have been certain issues that they have raised, which also is work in progress, we will try and resolve them.</p>.<p>We are also looking at promoting our beyond Bengaluru clusters, which includes Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad. We've seen some very good interest in that as well, especially Mysuru, after the connectivity has improved. A lot of people are keen on having at least one centre over there, if not the only but additional centre over there. Similarly, even in Mangaluru and Udupi, there is good response and we are expecting that some new investments, some new offices will come up.</p>.<p><strong>What are some issues that the GIA partners highlighted?</strong></p>.<p>They require some facilitation. And some of them are fairly local issues,such as connectivity, infrastructure and issues around availability or further development of the talent pool. Karnataka already has the largest talent pool when it comes to AI, ML and other technologies, but technology as you know is an ever-changing kind of environment. So, some countries, such as Finland, have come forward to partner in the ongoing scaling of the talent pool to ensure that we have talent available as per the demands of the industry.</p>.<p><strong>What are the government’s plans to build infrastructure beyond Bengaluru?</strong></p>.<p>If you see all the new industrial clusters which are coming up are primarily outside of Bengaluru. They may not be too far, like Kolar and Narsapura. Now in KGF we are going to have a cluster and Tumakuru has two very big clusters. A lot of investment is being made by the government in acquiring lands and developing industrial clusters around Bangalore, and also in cities like Hubballi-Dharwad there are a lot of industrial areas which are coming up. Of late, all industrial areas that are being planned need end to end planning, where all basic infrastructure and everything is put in place., so industries that come in, don't have to struggle for basic infrastructure.</p>.<p><strong>Have any of the companies you talked to shown any interest in these clusters?</strong></p>.<p>Mysuru. In fact, in the last few months, we've been interacting quite a bit with all the GCCs and also bigger ITES companies. So, there has been a lot of positive response and interest in setting up base at Mysuru. Already there are some big companies which have opened. Infosys opened a training centre which has now been converted to more like an office space. We have IBM which has opened up its office in Mysuru. There are many more coming. The other interesting part of Mysuru is that it is also developing as a very good electronics and ESDM hub. So Kaynes Technology has recently announced its investment in Mysuru. There are other ATMP companies which will be coming to Mysuru. So Mysuru actually is getting very good traction. We are also setting up an EMC cluster proposal that has been submitted to the Government of India. It should get approved shortly and we will be setting up the cluster.</p>
<p>Karnataka’s IT exports jumped 27 per cent to Rs 3.2 lakh crore in the previous financial year, making up for 42 per cent of India’s total share, and the government wants to continue this momentum by attracting both domestic and foreign companies to set up shop in the state. With Bengaluru -India’s Silicon Valley, bursting at its seams, the state is actively promoting other towns as new hubs for the technology industry. On the sidelines of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023, Department of IT & BT Secretary <strong>Ekroop Caur</strong> speaking to <em>DH</em>’s <strong>Anjali Jain</strong> shed light on how the summit helped propel these plans further, and what is in store for emerging clusters at Mysuru and Mangaluru.</p>.<p>Edited Excerpts.</p>.<p><strong>Can you give an overview of how meetings at the sidelines of BTS have panned out?</strong></p>.<p>In terms of our business meetings, we've had very good meetings with a lot of partner nations. We have the Global Innovation Alliance with 35 partner countries. So we've had meetings with almost all of them by now. And some new initiatives will emerge out of this. Some partnerships, in terms of them participating in the ecosystem, being part of our centres of excellence, and also joining hands to bring more investment and companies to India. There have been certain issues that they have raised, which also is work in progress, we will try and resolve them.</p>.<p>We are also looking at promoting our beyond Bengaluru clusters, which includes Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad. We've seen some very good interest in that as well, especially Mysuru, after the connectivity has improved. A lot of people are keen on having at least one centre over there, if not the only but additional centre over there. Similarly, even in Mangaluru and Udupi, there is good response and we are expecting that some new investments, some new offices will come up.</p>.<p><strong>What are some issues that the GIA partners highlighted?</strong></p>.<p>They require some facilitation. And some of them are fairly local issues,such as connectivity, infrastructure and issues around availability or further development of the talent pool. Karnataka already has the largest talent pool when it comes to AI, ML and other technologies, but technology as you know is an ever-changing kind of environment. So, some countries, such as Finland, have come forward to partner in the ongoing scaling of the talent pool to ensure that we have talent available as per the demands of the industry.</p>.<p><strong>What are the government’s plans to build infrastructure beyond Bengaluru?</strong></p>.<p>If you see all the new industrial clusters which are coming up are primarily outside of Bengaluru. They may not be too far, like Kolar and Narsapura. Now in KGF we are going to have a cluster and Tumakuru has two very big clusters. A lot of investment is being made by the government in acquiring lands and developing industrial clusters around Bangalore, and also in cities like Hubballi-Dharwad there are a lot of industrial areas which are coming up. Of late, all industrial areas that are being planned need end to end planning, where all basic infrastructure and everything is put in place., so industries that come in, don't have to struggle for basic infrastructure.</p>.<p><strong>Have any of the companies you talked to shown any interest in these clusters?</strong></p>.<p>Mysuru. In fact, in the last few months, we've been interacting quite a bit with all the GCCs and also bigger ITES companies. So, there has been a lot of positive response and interest in setting up base at Mysuru. Already there are some big companies which have opened. Infosys opened a training centre which has now been converted to more like an office space. We have IBM which has opened up its office in Mysuru. There are many more coming. The other interesting part of Mysuru is that it is also developing as a very good electronics and ESDM hub. So Kaynes Technology has recently announced its investment in Mysuru. There are other ATMP companies which will be coming to Mysuru. So Mysuru actually is getting very good traction. We are also setting up an EMC cluster proposal that has been submitted to the Government of India. It should get approved shortly and we will be setting up the cluster.</p>