IGI Logo

Even as the Bengaluru Tech Summit celebrates its 25th anniversary, the Karnataka government is looking beyond the capital city and moving aggressively to position emerging tech clusters from across the state on the digital global map.

Concerted efforts to drive anchor industries across the three clusters in Phase 1 with the help of the industry and academic partners are underway.

The 'Beyond Bengaluru' strategy envisages Mysuru as the hub for cybersecurity and ESDM, Hubballi-Dharward-Belagavi for agritech, ESDM, AI, and Mangaluru for Fintech and Healthtech sectors.

Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) held the 'Beyond Bengaluru Tech Summit' from Novermber 16-18 to bring out the current strengths of the emerging tech clusters and put together a strong road map till 2026.

B.V. Naidu, Chairman, KDEM, spoke on the project's recent milestones: "The past year has been filled with highlights as we catalysed several startups in conducive environments. We've overseen a GCC Spoke-Shore Strategy and startup grid initiative that saw around 33 companies begin/expand operations in Beyond Bengaluru clusters, generating employment for over 10,000 people.

"We launched future digital jobs in AI and cybersecurity in Mysuru, Hubballi, Dharward, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi and Belagavi with 2,000+ job opportunities. We will build on this and look to expand our vision, taking technologies and opportunities to other parts of Karnataka.

"Our academic and training partners are also geared up to meet the industry demand for skilled and employable workforce across the anchor sectors to start with. Plus, Beyond Bengaluru is a step in the right direction in our aim to drive 10,000 start-ups by 2030."

The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission is a Section 8 organisation designed to function as the knowledge bridge between the government of Karnataka and the industry with a view of accelerating growth and investments in IT, BT and S&T sectors in the state.

KDEM is working towards getting all stakeholders together to achieve this goal. By 2030, Beyond Bengaluru will contribute 2.5 per cent of Karnataka's GDP. The state will contribute more than $250 billion towards the digital economy goal of India by 2026, a KDEM release stated.

Sanjeev Gupta, CEO of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, said, "KDEM's focus is on promoting these clusters by maintaining constant dialogue between companies, investors, and the broader global ecosystem. Last 12 months we have got into 13+ industry MoUs to drive the Beyond Bengaluru mandate that will help us reach our 2026 goals. One of our key initiatives is the Start-Up Grida"that connects various tech-related start-ups across multiple sectors in the digital economy.

"We already have more than 400 start-ups on the grid, allowing each to access services like infrastructure and customised partner products. We are further planning to incentivise start-ups outside Bengaluru with cluster seed funds, dedicating INR 75 Cr towards all three clusters. We believe these positive actions will attract more investors and entrepreneurs with scalable ideas from both India and abroad."