BENGALURU: While Prime Minister Narenda Modi on Thursday said India is uniquely positioned to leap ahead in the information era, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad laid emphasis on Karnataka's major role in the data economy.
The two were speaking at the launch of Karnataka's flagship Benglauru Tech Summit 2020, a three-day event which was also attended by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Vice President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin among other international delegates.
While stating that a data protection law is on the anvil and will be finalised soon, Prasad impressed upon the Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa to ensure that the state "becomes a great centre in India's data economy."
"Data will drive the data economy and international intercourse of commerce. India produces enormous data, with 1.3 billion people, 1.21 billion mobile phones and 1.26 crore Aadhaar cards. All these digital ecosystems are producing data," he said.
Prasad appealed to the IT community in the city to play a major role in the data economy that the government is keen on promoting. India is waiting for its moment in the data economy through data innovation and data refining, he said.
Meanwhile, Modi said that policy decisions were aimed at liberalising the technology and innovation industry.
He also urged the youth to play a huge role in devising robust cyber security solutions that will "effectively vaccinate against cyber attacks and viruses."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that under the partnership agreement signed in June, the two countries will be working on cyber and enabled technologies, a foundation for the digital economy.
The two countries are set to launch the Australia-India cyber and critical technology partnership grant programme where experts from both countries will work on technology, framework and best practice standards.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said, "One of the key goals of the state is to achieve 50 percent market share of the national bio-economy target of 100 billion US dollars by the year 2025 and necessary steps have already been taken."
Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan termed the pandemic as the Y2K moment of the coming decade. The rapid development of infrastructure in two sectors -- connectivity and communication -- will be addressed through a single window mechanism and other much needed reforms, he said.
While the operation of many Udaan airports in the state including Hubballi, Belagavi, Bellary, Kalburgi, Bidar, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Dharwad and Shivamogga will make travel easy, rapid penetration of 4G and in a few months, 5G network, will solve communication issues, he added.
"We will mould Karnataka from a $ 52 billion digital economy to a $ 300 billion in the next five years, while the present share of $ 36 billion in biotech will reach $ 100 billion in the next five years," he assured.
Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDM) will use the 'Invest India' model to build global linkages for promoting Karnataka's tech industry and enhancing the states brand equity, he said, expecting the initiative to bring in a revenue of $ 150 billion in IT exports alone in the next five years.
Speaking about the massive growth of biotechology in the state, chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that Karnataka's bio-economy has been estimated to contribute 22.6 billion dollars in 2019, accounting for 10.2 percent of Karnataka's GSDP. The national bio-economy is at 62.5 billion dollars which is 2.3 percent of India's GDP.
While at present, the state accounts for a third of India's bio-economy, the goal is to reach 50 percent of the $ 100 billion economy that the country aims for by 2025, she added.
Meanwhile, Rizwan Arshad, MLA, Shivajinagar, put the responsibility of breaking the stagnation of the unorganised MSME businesses on the shoulders of the tech sector.