Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta said India has untapped opportunities in the manufacturing, engineering and digitalisation industries that can play a key role in the country’s vision of a $1 trillion digital economy.
Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) has been working to further strengthen IT/ITeS industry across Karnataka state with industry and academia participation.
Last year KDEM’s various initiatives under the leadership of Chairman B V Naidu and CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta have found results.
KDEM established its centres at Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi, Belgavi, Davengare and Tumkuru and engaged with stakeholders in amplifying the importance of industry and academy connect for the overall growth of the region.
The organisation has come up with startup challenges and various exhibitions at tier-2 and tier-3 cities of Karnataka and its received widespread accolades from industry stake holders and government leadership.
Talking to TheNFAPost, KDEM Chief Executive Officer Sanjeev Kumar Gupta highlighted the fact that India has untapped opportunities in the manufacturing, engineering, and digitalisation industries that can play a key role in the country’s vision of a $1 trillion digital economy.
“The thrust towards India’s digital transformation has the potential to empower unserved and underserved segments with special benefits to create employment zones in tier 2 and 3 cities with emerging tech clusters,” said KDEM Chief Executive Officer Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
He also pointed out that the Beyond Bengaluru strategy, initiated by the Government of Karnataka and anchored by KDEM is spearheading the objective of proliferating the growth of the digital economy in clusters outside the city in line with the vision of a $1 trillion digital economy by the year 2026-27.
KDEM Chief Executive Officer Sanjeev Kumar Gupta explained his vision and certain specific expectations from the upcoming Union Budget.
“In the upcoming budget we have 2 requests from the Government of India to consider announcing the Emerging Digital Cluster Scheme (EDCS) and Global Technology Excellence Centre (GTEC),” said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
He also highlighted the fact that government should earmark the ‘Emerging Digital Cluster Scheme (EDCS)’ with an annual outlay of Rs 30,000 crore for FY 2022-23 to grow 100 tier-2 and tier-3 cities as emerging digital clusters across the country by 2026.
“I believe this will support state governments to set up the state’s digital economy mission, to focus on growing new Bharat across tier-2 and tier-3 cities of the state. With this activity, our objective is to increase the digital economy pie of the state GDP by 30% and have an overall contribution of 35% to the national GDP,” said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
Each state to outline their ‘Digital Economy Mission Annual Plan’ which will focus on setting up of emerging technology clusters in the state covering Class A infrastructure, policies, industry partnerships for academic institutions, future digital jobs, internships and attracting investments in the State in the field of technology.
He also said the Government of India will provide 75% of the planned fund and 25% from respective state governments.
“The outcome will be to have 100 new centres in the country where new Bharat will be shown to the world and create local employment of 50 lakhs. The digital economy will include the growth of IT/ITES industries across the state by attracting Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and special programs for hosting Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM),” said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
Sanjeev Kumar Gupta also said this will also help support the startup ecosystem in the state by addressing new emerging areas of the digital economy such as healthcare, education, women, panchayat raj, e-governance, skill development and others.
Commenting on the proposal on the Global Technology Excellence Centre (GTEC), said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta highlighted the fact that India should setup 40 global technology excellence centres across the country, creating R&D movement, startups, and innovation networks.
“This will become the backbone of new India R&D architecture. A separate programme (Global Technology Excellence Centre Scheme) needs to be created in partnership with state governments on emerging technologies like AI/ML, clean tech, public digital assets, medtech, agritech, edutech, mobility, telecom, fabless & others,” said said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
Besides allocating Rs 10000 crore (Rs 250 crore for each center) in 2023-24 budget, he pointed out that India should establish these centres in the next 12 months where the government of India will fund 60%, 25% from the state government and 15% from the industry.
“This will help us create new IPs & put India in the top 3 globally. This will also support industry to grow with the global competitive products and create new employment opportunities of around 25 lakhs through this initiative by 2026,” said said KDEM CEO Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.
