The largest technology summit – Bengaluru Tech Summit – is entering its silver jubilee edition this year. BTS has grown over the years, and this time, with the theme ‘Tech4NexGen’, the summit (November 16-18) will focus on technology and innovation for the next generation. In an interview with The New Sunday Express, IT&BT Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan says BTS 2022 will witness participation from over 50 countries and 2,000 start-ups. According to him, the state government has taken various steps to address infrastructure challenges, and they will not have any impact on the summit.
The BTS-2022 will be held within two weeks after the Global Investors Meet (GIM). What kind of a response are you expecting from startups and delegates?
We expect a tremendous response for BTS this year. The summit will be a physical event after two years, and it will witness participation from over 50 countries, 350 domain experts, 75 sessions, and 5,000 delegates. Over 2,000 start-ups will take part. We will have several delegations led by ministers from our GIA (Global Innovation Alliance) partner countries, including Dubai, Finland, the Netherlands and Australia. Ambassadors from several of our GIA partner countries, including Australia, Finland, the UK and Denmark, among others have also confirmed participation.
There is an interesting session on the Bengaluru Next Unicorns Conclave. Will this encourage more startups to set up base in the city compared to Delhi-NCR?
We had a very successful Unicorn Conclave during BTS 2021, with the participation of over 30 unicorns in Karnataka. This year, with more Karnataka homegrown startups achieving the unicorn status, we plan to make this conclave even bigger and more successful. Bengaluru has a matured startup ecosystem, and it is home to some of the largest startups in the country. Around 40% of the unicorns in the country are based out of Bengaluru. Karnataka was the first state in the country to launch the Karnataka Startup Policy 2015-2020, and has subsequently launched various startup initiatives for the development of the startup ecosystem. Initiatives such as Elevate 100, Grand Challenges Karnataka and Elevate WomEN will continue to encourage more startups to set up base in the city.
What are the emerging technologies that will be showcased in this year’s BTS?
Topics such as Hybrid Cloud, Edge Computing, Future of Fintech, Mobility, among others will be covered. In biotechnology, there will be interesting dialogues on Genomics revolution 2.0, Gene editing and Smart Supply Chains in Biopharma. We will have various countries speaking about niche technologies that they are specialising in and focusing on. For instance, Finland will conduct a session on 5G. Denmark, being a leading country for clean technology, will speak about Tech for Sustainability. Space technology and Aerospace R&D will also be covered. Various business leaders will participate in the CEO conclave and there will be an open-house on challenges faced by the industry and paving the roadmap for Karnataka across sectors for the next decade. We will also celebrate 25 glorious years of the Summit by felicitating Top 25 global leaders and Top 25 global capability centres in the state. The Metaverse experience zone and Lab2Market will be some of the highlights.
As part of Beyond Bengaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru hosted the precursor to BTS 2022. What was the feedback?
Techceleration 2022, a two-day event was held in Hubballi. The event showcased Hubballi-Dharwad- Belagavi cluster’s growing importance as a contributor to Karnataka’s digital economy. Over 700 people participated in various sessions and sub-events. Mentoring system for startups and investment has also been increasing. The Big Tech Show 2022 was held in Mysuru to showcase the progress achieved by the technology industry in Mysuru.
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) went live with a beta launch in Bengaluru last month. How will this government-owned network help users, and will there be any session on this?
Consumers in Bengaluru can now shop from multiple categories of products and services from a single buyer application of their choice. Consumers can place their orders in two domains – groceries and restaurants – through any buyer apps participating on the ONDC network. ONDC’s beta testing is live across 16 pin codes in Bengaluru. We currently do not have a session in BTS 2022 on this topic.
Infrastructure is still a big challenge as the image of the city took a hit recently due to heavy rains. Will that have any impact on BTS-2022?
There won’t be any impact on BTS-2022. We have received record rainfall in our city, and this kind of rainfall will definitely throw up a lot of challenges. The state government has taken progressive steps and infrastructure challenges will be addressed with robust short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. There are challenges. We are willing to address them effectively. Some people are trying to do these campaigns with vested interest and rain is the target. They can’t compete in a better way and are indulging in these campaigns.