Bengaluru, NFAPost: Karnataka’s Minister for Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Higher Education, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood Dr C N Aswath Narayan on Friday announced the setting up of a Start-up Silicon Valley Bridge for Indian and US start-ups to work together.
In his valedictory address at the 24th edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021 (BTS) here, the minister said the bridge will engage connect between the two countries and get more investor traction in the start-up ecosystem.
“The start-ups of both the countries will work and share knowledge, workforce and other resources as part of the new initiative. It will help bring various concepts from Silicon Valley. Karnataka government will facilitate those startups to find the right skillsets here,” said C N Aswath Narayan.
C N Aswath Narayan also said the 25th edition (silver jubilee) of the BTS to be held in 2022 between November 16 and 18 will be bigger and better and all preparations will go to make it grand and successful than its previous editions.
The minister said the BTS 2021 has attracted investments to the tune of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the aftermath of the announcement of the government’s new ESDM policy with industries evincing interest in setting up semiconductor plants, motors for air conditioners, solar cell unit and electric vehicle among others.
Taking a cue from the success story of India’s leading stock broking company Zeroddha, a homegrown fintech venture, Dr Narayan announced the constitution of a fintech task force to attract investments in the financial sector. He said the government plans to set up a centre of excellence and a back office in Mangaluru for the purpose. Similarly, an entrepreneur has evinced interest in setting up an electric battery manufacturing unit at Hubballi, he said.
Notwithstanding the raging pandemic, C N Aswath Narayan said a million people had changed jobs in the last six months and another four lakh candidates were getting ready for employment.
“For the first time, the government of Karnataka conducted pre-events in the cities of Mangaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru in the run-up to the BTS 2021 to promote the concept of industries going beyond Bengaluru. “Tech Summit was held in these clusters with strong participation notwithstanding the pandemic,” said C N Aswath Narayan.
The minister said the government of Karnataka has received invitation from various participating countries in the BTS 2021 to visit their countries to further strengthen investment ties.
He said the Sydney Conclave and the Indo-US Conclave were successes as it saw interaction between prime ministers of India and Australia and the US Consul General in Chennai respectively.
Prashanth Prakash, chairman of vision group on start-ups also spoke on the occasion.
