Besides a slew of measures to boost tier two cities development as IT hubs, Ashwatha Narayana also released state’s new IT Policy for 2020-25 that aims to generate 60 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the sector.
Bengaluru, NFAPost: In yet another ambitious effort to expand tech-based industries beyond Bengaluru, Karnataka state government announced a slew of initiatives as of the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ led by the IT&BT Department.
Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwatha Narayana, also the minister of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, announced the new programme as part of “Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020” which will start on November 19, said ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ will focus on Mysuru, Mengaluru, Hubbali-Dharwad and Shivamogga.
“This measure is aimed at enhancing the growth of IT /ITeS, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM), and Telecom sector industries located at the upcoming cities,” he said.
Ecosystem development
He also informed that the government is 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.
“There were efforts to develop these cities earlier, but their full potential was not realised. But now, the time is conducive to go beyond Bengaluru in the wake of reverse migration that happened because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwatha Narayana.
Incentives & Offerings for “Beyond Bengaluru”
• Financial support for Information Technology Hubs/ Clusters of up to Rs 3 Crores outside Zone 4
• Financial support for Co-working Spaces/ Plug and Play Infrastructure of up to Rs 2 Crores outside Zone 4
• Lease/ Rental Reimbursement of up to Rs 3 lakhs (at the rate of INR 10 per sqft.) or Rs 6 lakhs (at the rate of INR 1000 per seat) outside Zone 4
• Exemption on Stamp Duty of 75% in Mysuru, Hubballi, Dharwad and Mangaluru and 100% for all other Zones except Zone 4
• Applicability of Industrial Power Tariff instead of Commercial
• Quality Certification Cost Reimbursement up to Rs 6 lakhs outside Zone 4
• Marketing Cost Reimbursement of up to Rs 5 lakhs per entity outside Zone 4
• Reimbursement of PF/ESI at the rate of Rs 2000 per employee per month for 2 years for all new employment created outside Zone 4
• Patents Cost Reimbursement of Rs 2 lakhs for Domestic and INR 10 lakhs for International Patent awarded and R&D Support of up to Rs 1 crore.
The Deputry Chief Minister also said a task force has also been established comprising of 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,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr.C.N.Ashwatha Narayana also informed that the government had taken many measures including setting up of New Age Innovation Network (NAIN)as a network of incubation centres in 30 engineering colleges in cities beyond Bengaluru, established Common Instrumentation Facilities (CIFs) and Technology Business Incubators in several academic institutions to catapult innovation and R&D outside Bengaluru, identified ESDM clusters to encourage industry to set up operations in the cities of Mysuru, Hubballi, Chikkaballapura, Chitradurga and others and has also set up VLSI Incubation Centre and Brownfield Cluster at Hubballi.
Promote innovation
To bring ease of doing business at these tier two cities, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwatha Narayana said the government has resolved connectivity issues in these areas by working with telecom companies. The minister also released the state’s new IT Policy for 2020-25 that aims to generate 60 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the sector.
Speaking at the function, STPI Bengaluru Director Shailendra Tyagi said STPI will establish a centre in the city of Davanagere in a couple of months.
E V Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, who spoke at the function also said for enhanced ecosystem growth, it is important that we look at infrastructure development, market access, ecosystem engagement and talent development in cities other than Bengaluru.
“Furthermore, it is increasingly important, that we, as Government of Karnataka implement necessary steps to support and promote innovation, growth and development in these cities,” said Additional Chief Secretary Dr E.V. Ramana Reddy.
Kris Gopala Krishnan, Chairman, Vision Group IT and B V Naidu, Managing Partner, StartupXseed Ventures addressed on the occasion. Meena Nagaraj, Director, Dept. of Electronics, IT /BT was also present.
