BENGALURU: Ahead of the state budget, Deputy Chief Minister and IT & BT Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan met top business honchos from the city. A few days ago, he met Wipro chairman Azim Premji’s son Rishad, and on Monday, he met Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy. In the next one week, he is scheduled to meet many other businessmen, including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
Speaking to TNIE, the minister said, “The discussions were based on changing the way college students are prepped for jobs. We discussed the challenges faced by companies when they set up shop in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.”
However, his office remained tight-lipped about what was discussed regarding the budget. The minister intends to meet industrialists to encourage them to invest in Karnataka. “It is through these efforts that a company like Amazon has invested in Bengaluru,” the minister’s office said.
According to sources close to the minister, the meeting was to discuss certain ideas the government intends to implement towards development of the IT and BT sector, which will be proposed at the budget session.
“Of the things to be discussed, the state’s proposal to set up a Karnataka Technology Development Board to push indigenously developed technology for entrepreneurs; to provide support to IT, BT and ITES companies in investments and promotion and facilitating interactions with government agencies were discussed,” a source said.
The DyCM and Rishad discussed issues regarding developing skills of engineering students and forming talent accelerators for graduates. According to sources, there might be a big chunk allotted to the IT sector in this budget.
Monday’s meeting with Murthy was fruitful, with several talks held on the city’s infrastructure and also on the growth of the IT industry.
Dr Narayan tweeted, “I had a great interaction with Shri @infosys_nmurthy on wide ranging issues from education to IT. His words are invaluable to us in charting our future roadmaps! Thank you for your inputs sir (SIC).”
Sources confirmed that the meetings have no particular agenda, but are just a forum to discuss various issues with regard to the budget. “The IT policy will soon be in place, which will help decongesting Bengaluru and attract investments to Tier-II cities,” an official said.