From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Nov 18: India’s silicon valley and knowledge capital, Bengaluru, being the worlds youngest start-up ecosystem with 37% of the population in the age group of 15-35 years has been a witness to the launch of over 11,000 start-ups attracting venture capital inflow worth $ 28 billion recently, stated Meena Nagaraj C N, Director of State Department of Electronics, IT, BT and MD of KITS.

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Government Funding, Grants and Schemes for Entrepreneurs’ at the ‘Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021’ on Thursday, she said the various policy interventions and incentives rolled out by the State Government has helped in leveraging Bengaluru as one of the best avenues for entrepreneurs.

“The city was ranked 23rd this year in the Global Start-up Ecosystem Report published by Startup Genome, making it the only city in the country to be in the Top 100,’’ she said.

Recently, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India has ranked Karnataka as the top performer in the Start-up sector in the country. ``This is a result of the range of impact generated through institutional support and incubation networks, as well as awareness and outreach. Initiatives are also undertaken towards seed funding and venture fund support along with certain tax exemptions and grant-in-aid,’’ she added.

“So far 470 projects have been funded with 181 prototypes being built and 13 patents filed through ELEVATE programme to support early start-ups,’’ she said adding: Idea validation and mentoring are provided by a dedicated portal.

Meena Nagaraj pointed that AMRUT start-up initiative and UNNATI to cater to the weaker sections along with Grand Challenges-Karnataka add to the list of great initiatives by Karnataka.

Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner for Industrial Development and Director, Department of Industries and Commerce, said: “Our (Karnataka’s) financial incentives are the best in India and we have the ready-made infrastructure available for setting up the industry with lands available throughout the length and breadth of the State.’’

She highlighted the availability of high-skill labour, comprising well-connected demand centers that provide world-class social infrastructure for industrial houses.

Gunjan said, “Karnataka’s New Industrial Policy 2020-2025 envisions it to become a global leader creating an ecosystem for inclusive, balanced and sustainable development of the State” Focusing on the development and promotion of MSME sector, Karnataka gives subsidies based on the value of assets and upon the zones it falls under and more incentives are given in Tier 1 and II cities, especially in the Kalyana Karnataka region to foster growth, she added. Shruti Singh, Joint Secretary, DPIIT, presided over the discussion lauding entrepreneurial opportunity provided through BTS and the significant Start-Up India initiative.

The panel discussion concluded with the anecdotes of the beneficiaries of ELEVATE initiative across the state, Scapic, Clarette Biotech, to name a few.

Cyber Security collaboration significant: Taiwan

The India-Taiwan bilateral relation has been ever-expanding in recent times with the collaboration including the Cyber Security arena, said Prof Chin Tsan Wang, Director, Science and Technology, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, which is focused on establishing a win-win solution for both the countries through promotion and cooperation on the regional platform, be it South Asian or Indo-Pacific partnerships. Participating in a session on ‘Cyber Security and Related Research Applications’ at the ‘Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021’, on the second day of the summit, he said the Government of Taiwan, like that of India, has started various initiatives to revive the economy post-Covid crisis, of which developments in science and technology are inevitable.

“The world is changing in the AI age, so setting a safe cyber security is necessary”, further expressing Taiwan’s interest in collaborating with India to increase respective research applications in the field of cyber security.Partnering with Taiwanese companies is an easy way to build up cyber-infrastructure effectively, by setting up research organisations, training centers, and innovation hubs in India and Taiwan, he added, lauding the country’s Digital India initiative.

Dr Yi-Lang Tsai, Research Fellow & Division Director, National Center for High- Performance Computing, National Applied Research Laboratories, discussed the cyber range designs for the defense of national critical infrastructure. The major aspects to broaden cyber security supporting issues were two, namely platform and test-bed enhancements and data understanding and improvement, he said.

Listing the initiatives of Taiwan, Dr Tsai mentioned their country’s Security Operation Center that primarily carries out research on cyber security and provides related services and Science Park- Information Sharing and Analysis Center (SP-ISAC) has been established for increased cooperation among Taiwan science parks.

He explained the large-scale threat detection system like Hybrid Intrusion Detection System, which uses distributed Honeynet system for sensor deployment and data collection, provides threat intelligence and establishes malware knowledge base. He added that Taiwan’s high-performance computing platform takes about 90 seconds to be set up, making their security information techniques of top notch. The session pressed on conducting Cyber Defence Exercises (CDX) and improving hands-on training and challenge platforms for students which would be useful for human skill development in the field.