Covid-induced remote working has prompted ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ initiative: DCM
BENGALURU:
The long-sought but hitherto unsuccessful objective of building an IT ecosystem beyond Bengaluru is back and in sharper focus, ironically thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ‘new normal’ of ‘work from home’ (WFH) or ‘work from anywhere’ (WFA). To this end, the state government has rolled out a new initiative, ‘Beyond Bengaluru’, focused on nurturing tech biz in cities other than the state capital.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, who also holds the Electronics and IT- BT portfolio, said the initiative aims to boost IT/ITeS, BPO, telecom and related industries in cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubbali, Kalburagi and Shivamogga. He was inaugurating the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ initiative as part of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 (Nov 19-21) on Thursday.
At present, cities other than Bengaluru contribute just 5% of the total revenue of the industry. This needs to change to achieve the state’s target of becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025, he said. The DCM said a task force had been set up to prepare a White Paper on the initiative.
Boost from reverse migration
While earlier efforts to spread the tech ecosystem outside Bengaluru did not succeed for various reasons, the present time is conducive to revive the initiative in the backdrop of pandemic-induced reverse migration and improved connectivity in tier 2 and 3 cities, he said.
The steps taken by the government include setting up a ‘New Age Innovation Network’ (NAIN) as a network of incubation centres in 30 engineering colleges in cities beyond Bengaluru, Common Instrumentation Facilities (CIFs) and Technology Business Incubators in several academic institutions to catapult innovation and R&D, ESDM clusters to encourage industry to set up operations in cities like Mysuru, Hubballi, Chikkaballapura and Chitradurga, and a VLSI Incubation Centre and Brownfield Cluster at Hubballi.
I thank Shri @kris_sg, Chairman of Vision Group on IT, Shri BV Naidu, Managing Partner at StartupXseed Ventures and Shri Shailendra Tyagi, Director of @stpiindia, for their gracious presence.
— Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N. (@drashwathcn) November 12, 2020
ACS Ramana Reddy, Smt Meena Nagaraj, Director, @ITBTGoK were present. #NextIsNow
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Shailendra Tyagi, Director, STPI, Bengaluru, said an STPI centre would soon be established in Davanagere.
Dr EV Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, said, “It is increasingly important that we as the Government of Karnataka implement the necessary steps to support and promote innovation, growth and development in these cities.”
Kris Gopala Krishnan, Chairman, Vision Group IT, and BV Naidu, Managing Partner, StartupXseed Ventures, spoke on the occasion. Meena Nagaraj, Director, Department of Electronics and IT/BT, was among those present.
IT lollies for other cities
• Financial support for IT clusters of up to Rs 3 crore outside Zone 3
• Financial support for co-working spaces of up to Rs 2 crore outside Zone 3
• Lease/rental reimbursement of up to Rs 3 lakh/Rs 6 lakh outside Zone 3
• Exemption on stamp duty of 75% in Mysuru, Hubballi, Dharwad and Mangaluru and 100% for all other zones except Zone 3
• Applicability of Industrial Power Tariff instead of Commercial
• Quality certification cost reimbursement up to Rs 6 lakh outside Zone 3
• Marketing cost reimbursement of up to Rs 5 lakh per entity outside Zone 3
• Reimbursement of PF/ESI at the rate of Rs 2,000 per employee per month for 2 years for all new employment created outside Zone 3
• Patents cost reimbursement of Rs 2 lakh for domestic and Rs 10 lakh for international patent awarded and R&D support of up to Rs 1 crore.
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