B'lore-Bay Area collaboration on the cards: Industries secretary

To give a fillip to Bangalore's entrepreneurial skills, the newly-formed government is planning to come out with a “cross border entrepreneurship” programme between Bangalore and (San Francisco) Bay Area to embark on a unique model for start-ups.

“We are likely to initiate this in the forthcoming budget. It will be an equal partnership between Indian and US companies and turbo-charge the “start-up” environment in Bangalore,” the principal secretary, industries and commerce department, government of Karnataka, M N Vidyashankar said. The State budget is slated to be presented on July 12.

As a follow-up exercise, a 160-member business delegation led by the Mayor of San Francisco, Edwin M Lee will be visiting Bangalore for a week in the last week of November this year to explore opportunities in software, research and development, he added.

Besides, the budget is also likely to come up with an initiative to attract venture capital in the manufacturing sector and a separate budget to boost research and development activities in Bangalore, Vidyashankar said.

He was speaking at a seminar on “Beginning of a new era for Karnataka” organised by trade body the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) as part of its 96th annual general meeting here on Thursday.

Vidyashankar said that trade delegations from Taiwan and Israel would be visiting Bangalore in July and November respectively to explore opportunities. “We are keen to develop 300 acre near Devanahalli for setting up a cluster for electronics where we expect about 45 Taiwanese companies to set up units in partnership with Indian companies,” he said.

The Israeli delegation is likely to look at opportunities in the aerospace sector, he said.

However, the consul general for south India, Israel, Menahem Kanafi, could not confirm the November visit.

Vidyashankar hinted that a crude refining company is keen to set up greenfield project near Mangalore with a project cost of about Rs 36,000 crore. “It is at an ideation stage,” he said. He also said that the exercise to incorporate views of the business community in finalising the State's 2014-19 industrial policy is likely to be over by December 31, 2013.