No plans for GIM, focus on Tech Summit: George

Industries and IT&BT Minister K J George said that the government wasn’t planning the Global Investors Summit (GIM), but was focusing on holding the Bengaluru Tech Summit.

In an interaction with DH, George said the changing dynamics of industrialisation has compelled the state government to focus on technology which will have an impact on sectors.

“Karnataka, especially Bengaluru, can emerge as the technology hub of the world as the state and the city have all world-class infrastructure. Besides captive research centres of Fortune 500 companies, we have institutions of eminence which have made global impact like the IISc,” said George.

The minister said the government has come up with a plan to set up five K-Tech Innovation Hubs across the state. “The first one has already started at Belagavi and others will be opened on Monday at Jalahalli in Bengaluru and the rest in Mangaluru, Shivamogga and Mysuru,” he said.

Besides giving space and infrastructure, instrumentation, prototyping facilities, these tech hubs leverage the globally connected ecosystem like that of MIT Lab and Bell Labs. “It will help access to technology ecosystem of Silicon Valley, Israel, London, Berlin and Beijing,” he said.

This year’s Bengaluru Tech Summit focuses on three areas — emerging technology, startups and global alliances. The state government expects 10 countries to participate in the event which will see 3,500 delegates and over 300 exhibitors.

Speaking to DH, Department of IT, BT & S&T and Industries & Commerce Principal Secretary Gaurav Gupta said businesses are going through digital transformation which results in new business processes and even business models.

“There is a shift in technology spending from IT to the line of business (LoB). This includes business-funded purchases and ‘shadow IT’ projects funded by the LoB without IT involvement,” he said.

Gupta pointed out that Bengaluru is the fourth largest technological cluster in the world after Silicon Valley, Boston and London. “We are focussing on emerging technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics and nanotechnology. Besides focus on pure science, the state is also looking at cross pollination of technologies in various business verticals,” he said.