From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Nov 20: Karnataka’s Department of IT, BT and S&T has announced the launch of Global Innovation Alliances Market Access Program (GIA MAP) at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019.

GIA MAP supports export expansion projects, by helping start-ups to enter new markets, establish international partnerships, and increase global sales.

The programme would have two parts, inbound and outbound. While ‘Inbound’ would provide soft landing provided in KTech Incubators for start-ups from other countries (GIA Partners), ‘Outbound’ would provide soft landing for Karnataka Startups in GIA countries.

This would be a reciprocal agreement, where in start-up ecosystems of Karnataka and the GIA partner involved benefit mutually by sending and receiving start-ups.

Partnering with Berlin Senate-backed initiative Startup Asia Berlin (SUAB), the first cohort of German startups will explore the Indian market from November 13 to December 3.

With this, Karnataka startups are expected to visit Berlin for a similar program early next year. The aim of GIAMAP is to forge lasting business relationships, and to support startups in achieving international growth.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr E V Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T said “We have embarked on creating a system of Global Innovation Alliances with innovation hubs of the world such as USA, UK, Isreal, France, Germany, etc. With startup promotion as one of the key focus areas for our government, we are pleased to launch GIAMAP to further engage with our international partners in this area. Bengaluru being the Startup Capital, would pave the way for international startups to access the Indian market via Bengaluru. ”

Ramona Pop, Berlin Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, welcomed the new initiative stating, “Startups play a crucial role in the development of new technologies. In order to tackle the challenges of the 21st century we need innovators who think outside the box. We are happy to support this exchange between German and Indian startups. Finding solutions across borders will undoubtedly help both regions to thrive.”

In the pilot of the Market Access Programme, founders of German startups are invited to deep dive into Bangalore’s ecosystem for three weeks. Attending Bengaluru Tech Summit will offer the German participants unique opportunities to explore the Indian startup scene.

Shoba Purushothaman, MD of Hardskills’ Berlin hub said, “With 20% of the world’s workforce, India is a limitless market for Hardskills which solves a big challenge of Industry 4.0 – how to train entire workforces in the hard-to-teach behaviors and skills such critical thinking, agility, how to influence, collaborate and other modern business skills needed for high performance today. Hardskills is proud to be pioneer this bilateral pilot between Berlin and Bengaluru.”

The programme is tailor-made for each startup, focusing on its unique needs and is free. Following the pilot, similar startup exchanges are being planned with The Netherlands and Australia.

As a run up to the Global Exhibition on Services (GES) 2019 scheduled at Bengaluru, a Curtain Raiser to the event was held in Bengaluru on Tuesday in the presence of Jagadish Shettar, Minister for Large & Medium Industries. He was joined by senior representatives from the helm at Government of India and Government of Karnataka.

Welcoming captains of industry and trade, besides key stakeholders representing the services sector, Shettar said the objective was aligned to Government of India’s thrust to Champion Services sector, the State Government is formulating a strategy for the services sector.

He said the State Government’s intent to provide a further boost to enhance Karnataka’s position in the services sector space.

Highlighting that the service sector is the ‘engine providing momentum for India to achieve USD 5 trillion economy’, Vijay Bhaskar, Chief Secretary said the venue for the 5th edition of the GES 2019 could not have been better. This, he emphasised, has been aided by Karnataka’s leadership position across verticals, particularly IT and IT enabled services, Animation and Visual effects industry, Education, Health, etc.

Setting the prelude for the upcoming GES 2019, Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, said that for the year 2018-19, Karnataka emerged as a leader in the country with its share in the services sector at 38% of the All India services exports.

He reiterated Government’s initiatives to propel industries across manufacturing and services sector in the State, considering Karnataka’s emerging role and contribution to services sector in the country.

Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India, inviting Stakeholders to GES 2019, provided a comprehensive background to the event being organised by Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC).

The other key dignitaries who spoke at the event included Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India and Ms. Sangeeta Godbole, Director General, SEPC. Aman Choudhari, Chariman CII Karnataka State Council delivered the welcome address.

The event was attended by a large spectrum of representatives across industry, trade, export promotion councils, startups and other interested stakeholders in the services sector space.

The 5th Edition of GES 2019 has been scheduled from November 26 to 28 at Bangalore Palace. Organised by Ministry of Commerce, Government of India in collaboration with CII and SEPC, Karnataka is the host state at this event.

The second day of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019 started off with a high voltage presentation by Gadgetguru and Tech Anchor Rajiv Makhni. During the day, National Finals of Rural IT Quiz, Robotics Competition – R2- RoboRecharge Robotic Premier League involving two races: a roborace and a quadcopter race, and a series of panel discussions on IT and BioTech were held. The day also witnessed the presentation of the Smart Bio Awards and Poster Awards.

Rajiv Makhni spoke about how innovation should not only be a wow factor but a disruption that benefits the world. "More technology has come into this world in the last five years than it has since the beginning of time" he said.

India is considered as a feature phone market, but there are only 500 million users of smartphones which is 59% of the current population which means that 49% of other Indians use feature phones.

There is a huge misconception that India is a voice only Android market but we need to remember that there are also 13-15 million iPhone users in India. India has moved from one of the lowest users of data to one of the highest in the world today.

Currently an individual uses an average of 15 GB of data a month. Service providers provide a staggering 1.5 gb a day to users at low rates which is the most by service providers in the world, he said.

"Innovation should disrupt a particular segment and make it better by eliminating what's wrong with it. For example, Air BnB is the largest hotel company in the world that doesn't own a single room, Amazon is the largest shopping company that doesn't own a single shop or Uber the largest taxi company in the world that doesn't own a single taxi and making mobility so accessible to the world, he explained.