From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 20: Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who also heads the Electronics, IT/BT as well as Science and Technology Departments, said Karnataka’s Digital Economy contribution is targeted to be increased to 30% of the State Gross Development Product (SGDP) by 2030.
Inaugurating the third office of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) in the Silver Spirit Technology Park in Mysuru, he said the KDEM office will work on focussing the growth of digital economy in the Mysuru Cluster.
The Minister also virtually inaugurated the office of GlowTouch, a global IT company which aims to employ 500 candidates in Mysuru.
“Mysuru and other clusters like Hubballi and Mangaluru are expected to contribute more than 5% of overall tech economy by 2030,’’ he said pointing out that the KSEM office in Mysuru will give a boost to digital economy as part of the Beyond Bengaluru outreach initiative.
In order to strengthen the digital economy, the State Government will focus on improving connectivity even to remote parts, providing 24/7 electricity and to reduce rural-urban divide by establishing the needed infrastructure, he said.
Dr Narayan said KDEM aims to attract investments for the IT/ITeS sector including the agro-sector in the state and to create 10 lakh jobs by 2025. It works to achieve the target by focusing on 5 verticals of IT products & services, Innovation & Startups, Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), ‘Beyond Bengaluru’, and ‘Talent Accelerator.’
The Prime Minister has set a target that India should become a 1 trillion dollar digital economy by 2025. By then, Karnataka’s contribution from the digital economy should be able to reach about 300-350 billion dollars and out of this, 150 Billon dollars is expected to be achieved from IT exports and KDEM has been set up to facilitate achieving this target, Dr Narayan explained.
Pratap Simha, MP, said the 10-lane highway connectivity between Bengaluru-Mysuru, which is planned to complete by next year will facilitate the growth of industries in the Mysuru region.
Further, he said work on the four-lane road between Mysuru and Madikeri would be started in the next year.
“Mysuru is not only a city of culture but also has a heritage of technological innovations, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family added the city will become a Cyber Security Hub in the near future,’’ he said.
Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, Start-up Vision Group of the State Government, said the “FutureDigitalJobs@Mysuru initiative which was launched on the occasion was a well thought out special program to tap the tech talent from Mysuru.
Dr Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Electronics IT/BT, S&T and C&I, said the Department is committed to providing all support to tap the full potential of Beyond Bengaluru clusters in Karnataka.
“We are seeing the early results like GlowTouch setting up in Mysuru and iMerit already set up in Hubballi and many more are in pipeline,’’ he said.
B V Naidu, Chairman KDEM, said the aim of KDEM, a joint initiative of Industry and the Government to drive ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ mission and create 10 lakh job opportunities in clusters identified outside Bengaluru is going to be a reality and Mysuru is becoming a promising destination for Global Capability Centres (GCC’s) and Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM).
On the occasion, ‘Beyond Bengaluru 100-days plan’ and an exclusive #FutureDigitalJobs@Mysuru initiative were also rolled out. The aim is to enable 2000 fresh graduates in Karnataka to be industry-ready and provide them with job opportunities in the private sector in the next 2 months.
Vidya Ravichandran, President of Glowtouch Technologies, presented a short video about Glowtouch’s global operations.
Pavan Ranga, Partner of N R Group & Chairman of CII and Sanjay S, Director SSTP, Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, MD & CEO – Lahari (a world Class Testing and Certifying facility), Shyamprasad Hebbar, Director, GlowTouch, Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Bagadi Gautam, Meena Nagaraj, Director, Dept. of IT/BT, Dr Bagadi Gautham, District Commissioner, and others were present.