Karnataka eyes 50% market share of country's $100 billion bio-economy by 2025

Kick-starting the 23rd edition of the virtual annual Bengaluru Tech Summit, chief minister BS Yediyurappa said Karnataka has taken several steps to enhance the overall business environment by bringing amendments to labour and land laws, the establishment of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, setting up of Karnataka Innovation Authority, among other measures.

At the inaugural session, he said: "One of the key goals of the state is to achieve 50% market share of the national bioeconomy target of 100 Billion US dollars by 2025 and necessary steps have already been taken." With the newly released IT policy, the aim is to generate 60 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the Information Technology sector, which would be focused beyond Bengaluru.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurating the summit, said: "At the peak of the Covid-19 lockdown, it was the technology that ensured that India's poor received proper and quick assistance. The scale of this relief has few parallels. If India is operating the world's largest healthcare scheme, Ayushman Bharat, it is due to a big role of technology".

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He added that with the global lockdown, travel restrictions keeping people away from their work palaces, the Indian tech sector has shown its resilience. "Our tech sector came into action and used tech solutions to keep work going on, from home and from anywhere. The tech industry recognised a great innovation opportunity in bringing people together," said the Prime Minister.

The 3 -day summit will focus on knowledge, innovation and health with a focus on going global, impact of IP on innovation, and e-commerce and supply chain along with drones and robotics as an emerging solution in healthcare, agriculture & disaster management, satellites and society, and digital healthcare.

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The government is also expected to sign several Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with several partner nations such as the Netherlands, France, UK and Germany to set up the centre of excellences, mentorship programs, startup programs and research and development collaborations.