BANGALORE: The state government will soon set up a nanotechnology park near the city, said Honne Gowda, special director (technical) of the Department of IT/BT, on Wednesday.
He was speaking at an event organised by the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), hosting a delegation from Skolkovo Foundation, a Russian non-profit organisation.
“We are keen to up the ante in the IT sector. We are planning to set up a nanotechnology park at Dobbspet on Bangalore-Tumkur road shortly and around 25 acres of land has been identified for this,” he said. He added that `150-200 crore has been allotted for the project. Gowda also said the state is looking to strike partnerships with countries like Israel and Korea to boost the sector. He said the government wants to increase the city’s IT workforce and hopes to achieve this through its mega project ‘Information Technology Investment Region’, for which 10,000 acres has been identified close to the Kempegowda International Airport at Devanahalli. The project is expected to provide direct employment to around 1.2 million and indirect employment to around 2.8 million people.
“Around a million are employed in the IT sector today. We want to scale this up to at least 2 million in the next few years. We will also encourage at least a thousand start-ups,” he said.
Gowda also said Bangalore will host a conference on nanotechnology in December.
Invite to Moscow
Igor Bogachev of Skolkovo Foundation said Russia is keen on having start-ups from India set up base at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre, close to Moscow. “We will provide various benefits to those who start their companies at the centre. Currently, we are looking at Indian companies investing in five clusters, namely information technology, energy-efficient technology, nuclear technology, biomedical technology and space technology,” he said.