BENGALURU: With the Covid-19 pandemic triggering the new normal of ‘work from home’ or ‘work from anywhere’, the State Government is looking at effectively leveraging and accessing talent and skill available across Karnataka with focus on expanding the digital footprint in cities other than Bengaluru.The government on Thursday rolled out an ambitious initiative, ‘Beyond Bengaluru’, with focus on building innovation and a technology ecosystem outside Bengaluru.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also the Minister of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, on Thursday inaugurated ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ as part of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 (November 19-21), saying this measure was aimed at enhancing the growth of IT/ITeS, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM) and telecom sector industries located in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali, Dharwad, Shivamogga, Belagavi and Kalaburagi cities.
At present, other areas outside Bengaluru are contributing just 5 per cent of the total revenue of the industry and this needs to be increased significantly to achieve Karnataka’s target of becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025.Dr E V Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, said, “For enhanced ecosystem growth, it is important that we look at infrastructure development, market access, ecosystem engagement and talent development in cities other than Bengaluru. Furthermore, it is increasingly important that we implement necessary steps to support and promote innovation, growth and development in these cities.”
The government is considering various incentives and offerings to give a major push for the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ initiative to take root in areas outside of Zone 4 (areas categorised as industrially developed under classification of zones in Karnataka for the purpose of incentives and concessions).
Task force to push mandate
These include financial support for IT hubs/clusters of up to Rs 3 crore; financial support for co-working spaces/plug-and-play infrastructure of up to Rs 2 crore; lease/rental reimbursement of up to Rs 3 lakh at the rate of Rs 10 per sqft or Rs 6 lakh (at the rate of Rs 1,000 per sqft); exemption on stamp duty of 75 per cent in Mysuru, Hubballi, Dharwad and Mangaluru and 100 per cent for all other zones, except Zone 4; applicability of industrial power tariff instead of commercial; quality certification cost reimbursement up to Rs 6 lakh; marketing cost reimbursement of up to Rs 5 lakh per entity; reimbursement of PF/ESI at the rate of Rs 2,000 per employee per month for two years for all new employment created; and, 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.
“A task force comprising industry, academia and other stakeholders has been set up to prepare a white paper to enable the ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ mandate. The paper will cover potential action points for promoting cities beyond Bengaluru by proposing initiatives to develop a technology ecosystem,” the DyCM said.