

BENGALURU: IT/BT and Home Minister Priyank Kharge on Thursday revealed that the state government is planning a “Government First” initiative, through which it will provide data stored by the government in terms of anonymised datasets to research organisations, and based on the results, it might collaborate with them to find solutions for the state.
Kharge was speaking on the second day of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) annual summit Innoverge. “If we want India to move beyond a service-based industry, we need to work together to upskill our masses. I want my state Karnataka to have the most employable human resource in the world,” he said.
The IT/BT Minister called for greater cooperation between stakeholders to bridge the gap between India and the world’ leaders in technology. “If India is to become an AI-led product nation, government, industry and academia cannot work in silos anymore. Karnataka has always believed in building innovation through collaboration. Our role is not just to govern, but to partner with industry, academia and entrepreneurs to create the right ecosystem for talent, research, startups and responsible AI. Together, we can build solutions that are not only made in Karnataka, but built for the world,” he said.
To support these priorities, Kharge highlighted several government initiatives already underway, including Nipuna Karnataka for industry-led skilling, the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) and the upcoming Global Innovation and Growth Alliance (GIGA) to strengthen international innovation partnerships, Elevate and Elevate Next to accelerate startup and DeepTech growth, Karnataka’s network of centres of excellence, and the proposed AI University.