BENGALURU: CEO of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) Sanjeev Gupta said Karnataka’s digital economy has been able to achieve a target of around $159billion. “We have taken a very conservative target of $329billion to be achieved by 2031-32, but have also set a stretch target of $454billion which can be achieved with everybody’s cooperation from the industry.”
He announced this during the annual meet of KDEM, presenting their achievements for the year 2025-26. He explained, “India’s GDP is $3.9billion and Karnataka’s GDP is $345billion. We are growing at about 8.5 per cent, and are expected to grow at 10 per cent going forward. Various sectors, including IT, biotechnology and ITES, contribute to the digital economy. Karnataka contributes around $165billion dollars towards IT exports. We need 1.9x growth going forward for the next five years. Today, the IT industry is worth $17billion and we are looking at around $24billion in 2031. The Electronic System Design & Manufacturing is a growing sector.”
On startups in the state, he said, “We have the highest number of startups in India, over 45,000, and in the next 4 to 5 years, biotechnology startups can contribute over $80billion.”
Going Beyond Bengaluru
In an important development, Tsuyo, a private company contributing to the Electric Vehicle (EV) segment, is setting up its plant in Dharwad at a cost of Rs 250 crore— setting an example of going Beyond Bengaluru. This will further provide employment to lakhs of youngsters in Hubballi, Dharwad and Belagavi districts.
According to the KDEM CEO, around 167 companies have set up operations in the past three years in six business clusters, including Mangaluru, Mysuru, Belagavi-Hubballi-Dharwad, Kalyana Karnataka comprising Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Bidar and other districts. He said that 127 new setups and 40 business expansions have created more than 11,000 job opportunities for people in these districts beyond Bengaluru.
“We have 15 GCCs coming up in the last three and half years in these six clusters. We are aiming to create over 3,000 jobs in the Beyond Bangalore clusters. Around 11lakh sqft of world class IT infrastructure is now available in Beyond Bangalore cities and towns,” he said. “We are looking at 10 more GCCs, and 35-40 new companies.”