HUBBALLI: IT, BT, Science and Technology, and Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said, the government would set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering at Hubballi soon as an industry-institute initiative.
Speaking at a summit on 'Innovation and Impact @Hubballi' held under the Beyond Bengaluru programme on Tuesday, the minister said that the setting up of CoE is part of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission. The local industries involved in high-end technology and institutes would be roped in. He also assured that a park would be developed at Hubballi to facilitate graduating startups to grow further.
Ashwath Narayan said the government has brought effective policies to promote innovative technologies and the duration of the internship has raised from 3 weeks to 30 weeks. The students will also be given opportunities to undergo internships abroad.
Stating that Electronics System Design and Manufacturing policy of the State was quite pro-industries, the minister said, whoever wants to set up electronics industry 45 per cent of cost on plant and machinery would be borne by the Centre and State governments, apart from 25 per cent cost of land shared by the state government, exemption on stamp duty and power subsidies. They would also get the benefit of the Performance Link Incentive scheme of the Central government.
He further said that the New Education Policy aspire to ready the students as per the global technological development and accordingly coding will be taught for students at high school level itself from the next academic year.
MLA Arvind Bellad insisted that instead of emulating Bengaluru in software development the focus should be on concentrating on investment in hardware manufacturing as the country highly depends on imports. For the industrial development of Hubballi-Dharwad, the government should think differently and act differently
Aequs Private Limited chairman and CEO Arvind Melligeri said setting up of Consumer Electronics and Durable Goods (CEDG) cluster at Hubballi-Dharwad would be a game-changer for the sector is concerned. In addition to improving the economy and creating jobs, it would boost innovation and its impact could be far-reaching.
KLE Technological University vice-chancellor Prof Ashok Shettar, IIIT-Dharwad director Kavi Mahesh, IT &BT Department additional chief secretary E V Ramana Reddy, KDEM chairman B V Naidu, Karnataka Vision Group on StratUp Prashant Prakash and others were present.