Karnataka is innovation leader, says Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru Tech Summit, the flagship three-day technology event organised by the Karnataka government, got off on Thursday with the state committing to position itself as the leader in frontier and emerging technologies.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka has emerged, as an innovation leader in the country, and the only state to do so in many ways and at many levels.

"From the enterprise IT services business in the mid-nineties to the startup revolution beginning 2010, it is now heralding the era of AI, Big Data, and Deep Learning in the fields of healthcare, manufacturing, and enterprise IT," he said.

The Chief Minister pointed out that Karnataka and Bengaluru have been fortunate to have the IT industry as an engine of growth for the last 25 years. "Today, the IT industry has over 15 lakh employed here, more than 25,000 companies of which around 7,000 are startups, an export revenue of $45 billion, more than 450 research labs with over 400 Fortune 500 companies getting their work done here," he said.

He also said that Karnataka's share in India's total IT exports has also increased from 25% in 2010-2011, to 38% in 2016-17.

Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said the development in the life sciences space heralded in a new age of digital health using advanced technology, AI and data sciences.   "Digital biotechnology is gaining momentum. It is important to find that 60% of life-tech companies are located in Bengaluru and it has created 3,000 entrepreneurs. It is interesting to find that 30% of these companies are owned by women," she said.