Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 highlights: Keen to make Karnataka most favoured destination for FDI, says BSY

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India is scheduled to inaugurate 23rd edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year's BTS programme is streamed online and touted to be Asia's biggest virtual event. BTS theme is 'Now is Next' and the summit will feature Multi-track Conference, International Exhibition, Global Innovation Alliance, STPI-IT Export Awards, Smart Bio Awards and Bengaluru Impact Awards. The other popular programmes among students namely Rural IT Quiz, Biotech Quiz and Biotech Posters will also be held virtually.

That concludes the BTS 2020 inauguration.

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Dr. Omkar Rai is the Director General of STPI on the virtual screen

Dr. Omkar Rai is the Director-General of STPI (Software Technology Parks of India)thankthe dignitaries for attending the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020. He added that the Indian tech sector to reach new heights and also work on becoming self-reliant India( Atmanirbhar Bharat) as called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Guy Parmelin, Vice President of Swiss Confederation on virtual screen

Guy Parmelin: Despite being a small country, Switzerland is one of the biggest innovation hubs in the world. The city of Bengaluru is now one of the major tech hotspots and we recognise its potential and have set up our regional embassy here. We like to collaborate in the fields of education, agriculture, research and innovation. This year the Bengaluru Tech Summit, our Swiss team will set up a new panel with a focus on food and nutrition.

Guy added that India and Switzerland are uniquelypositioned to find solutions and together turn challenges into opportunities.

Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia on the virtual screen

Scott Morrison: Countries like Australia and India with common roots with respect to democracy and vision for technology will helppeople lead better lives.

As PM Modi said, we have unlimited possibilitiesfor innovation. In partnership with India, Australia will work on cyber-enabled technologies.

India has clear advantage when it comes to Innovation: PM Modi

Because of the talent and zeal of the Indian youth to innovate. The potential of our youth is endless. I am confident our IT sector will keep making us proud, PM Modi concludes his speech.

Through technology, we have enhanced human dignity. Crores of farmers receive monetary support in one click. At the peak of the lockdown, it was a technology that ensured that India’s poor received proper & quick assistance. The scale of this relief has few parallel, PM Modi added.

BHIM Unified Payment Interface helped common people make easy cash-less transactions. Digital payments recorded Rs 2 billion transactions. Also, drone technology is being used to map land and fertiliserdelivery, which will help farmers save money and time.

Our resilient technology industry was able to overcome difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and enabled employees to work from home and from anywhere. This has become a new norm and is going to stay. We will see a high amount of tech adoption in education, agriculture and otehr sectors.

Thanks to Digital technology, India has been to able to scale up faster in service delivery to people across the country.

Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government was able to help citizens through Ayushman Bharat for medical assistanceefficiently thanks to digital technology.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the virtual screen

Five years ago, ourgovernment started the Digital India initiative to transform citizen's life in termsof ease of work, service delivery,and now, it has become a way of life in the country. Particularly, it has brought a lot of big changes and the benefits are everyone to see.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on the stage

BSY: The government of Karnataka will sincerely work towards making India a $5trillion economy by 2025. He also added that With the new IT Policy 2020-25, we plan to expand tech ecosystem beyond Bengaluru and make Karnataka most favourite destination for Foreign Direct Investment and also make sure the state become major Data hub.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister on the virtual screen

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications said-- Covid-19 brought in a lot of challenges, but digital technology helped overcome the difficulties. We have brought in policy for Work From Home, so the employees have flexible working conditions.

Also, the Indian government is happy to inform that major companies have pledged11 lakh crore investment in the next five years in the country, Prasad added.

He also noted Apple has shifted more than 11 units to India to manufacture phones and accessories. In particular, Karnataka has attracted the Cupertino-based company to not just quality iPhones for India, but also to export to other countries. HecongratulatedKarnataka CM BS Yediyurappa for the achievements.

Prasad also highlighted Karnataka will play a huge role in making India a global production and knowledgehub of the world.

Prasad added that the Indian government is committed to connecting every village and town across the countrywith optic fiber for internet connectivity in the next 1000 days.

Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan on stage

Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan on stage to thank the dignitaries attending the BTS 2020. Narayan adds Bengaluru and tier-II cities will help Karnatakareach a $1trillion economy and enable India to reachthe $5 trillion economy milestone envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Karnataka govt to expand tech ecosystem beyond Bengaluru

As part of the new Information Technology (IT) policy 2020–25,the government has chosen five upcoming cities-- Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali - Dharwad and Shivamogga--to expand the technology innovation ecosystem beyond Bengaluru.

With with, the government foresees greater growth of exports from the Karnataka state in primary sectors such as IT /ITeS, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM), and Telecom sector industries.

Read more |Karnataka govt chalks out plan to expand innovation ecosystem beyond Bengaluru city