KARNATAKA ROLLS OUT ‘BEYOND BENGALURU’ PROJECT AMID COVID-19

BENGALURU: At times when “work from home” or “work from anywhere” has become the new normal in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Karnataka government has rolled out a new initiative ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ focussed towards building innovation and a technology ecosystem beyond the state capital. Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N. Ashwatha Narayana, who is also the Minister of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, inaugurated ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ initiative as part of ‘Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020’ (19-21 Nov) on Thursday. The Deputy Chief Minister said this measure was aimed at enhancing the growth of IT /ITeS, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM), and Telecom sector industries located at Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali-Dharwad and Shivamogga. He also informed that the government was mulling to promote the development of such an ecosystem in four more places of the state. At present other places outside of Bengaluru are contributing just 5% of the total revenue of the industry and this needs to be increased largely to achieve the target of the state becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025.

With Covid-19 as the trigger to promote ‘work from anywhere’, Government of Karnataka is looking to effectively leverage and access the talent and skill available across the state, with focus on cities Beyond Bengaluru, he emphasised. Ashwatha Narayana said, “A task force has also been established comprising industry, academia and other stakeholders to prepare white paper to enable the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ mandate. The white paper would cover potential action points for promoting cities beyond Bengaluru, by proposing incentives and initiatives that may be undertaken for technology ecosystem development.”