DyCM Dr.C.N.Ashwatha Narayana inaugurates KDEM office in Hubballi
Bengaluru/Hubballi: The second office of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) in the state, which has the objective of working towards increasing the digital economy contribution in the state to 30% of SGDP, was inaugurated in Hubballi on Monday.
Inaugurating the new office which is being set up at Deshpande Foundation, Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwatha Narayana, who is also the minister for Electronics, IT/Bt, and S&T, said the KDEM office launched in the Hubballi will work focusing on the growth of the digital industry in Hubballi-Dharwad zone.
“The government established KDEM and its’ first office was started a few months back in Bengaluru. As a testimony to the industry friendliness of the state, it has allowed a majority stake of 51% to Industry associations while retaining a minority stock of 49% to itself. This also establishes the fact, that the government wants to act rather as a facilitator than as an authority,” said C N Ashwatha Narayana.
He said KDEM aims to attract investments for the IT/ITeS 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 & Manufacturing (ESDM), ‘Beyond Bengaluru’, and ‘Talent Accelerator’,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
In order to strengthen the digital economy, the Deputy Chief Minister said the government will focus on improving connectivity even to remote parts, providing 24/7 electricity, and reducing the rural-urban divide by establishing needed infrastructure.
“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 Billion dollars is expected to be achieved from IT exports and KDEM has been set up to facilitate achieving this target,” said Dr C N Ashwatha Narayana.
Saying that, In recent days, even the agriculture sector has been digitalised, he expressed confidence, KDEM will strive to attract investment for agri-tech industries.
The pre-event of the annual flagship event of the state, Bengaluru Tech Summit-2021, will be organised here sometime during the month of September or October, he stated.
“Hubballi has got good educational institutions in the surrounding region including IIIT and an ecosystem to nurture entrepreneurial growth. It has the potential to be grown as a good innovative industrial cluster,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
The state government has rolled out the first Engineering R & D policy in the country to promote research and development of the engineering sector in the state and has earmarked Rs 600 crores to spend for this purpose by 2025, C N Ashwatha Narayana informed.
