Deshpande bats for K'taka's startup power

Promoting Karnataka as an ideal hub for startup innovation and entrepreneurship, at the head of a high-level delegation to the US to promote Invest Karnataka 2016, State Large and Medium Industries and Tourism Minister R V Deshpande met senior executives of a few global startups at Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and said that the State has taken several steps to push startups, including bringing out a new Startup Policy, and also setting up of a startup council.

The council aims to stimulate growth of 20,000 tech-based startups, including 6,000 product startups by 2020, which would create six lakh direct and 12 lakh indirect employments.

With this, there is scope to mobilise Rs 2,000 crore funding investment in startups through government interventions, and facilitate generation of innovative technology solutions with a social impact.

Addressing the members of TiE, the minister said the State has always taken a lead in technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and developing an ecosystem for the growth of startups.

“Bengaluru has the distinction of having the largest IT cluster with the presence of over 375 global companies which have chosen the city for their R&D and offshore development operations, due to the availability of skilled professionals. The city is home to more than 36 per cent of all startups in India,” Deshpande said.

He also discussed ways to improve the startup ecosystem in Karnataka, and setting up of innovation clusters with a view to help startups scale up faster.

The minister visited several companies including Cisco, Adobe, Airbnb, Nutanix, LinkedIn, AeroVironment, and Sandisk.