The government of Karnataka is setting up five technology hubs across the state for innovations by start-ups in the product space for domestic and export markets, said a minister.
"The first K-Tech hub was opened at Belagavi in the north west region last week and the second hub in Bangalore on August 6. Three more hubs are being set up at Mangalore, Mysore and Shimoga," said Karnataka IT Minister K. J. George.
The minister said that four out of the five hubs are being located in tier-2 cities across Karnataka to influence the manufacturing clusters around them and employ the locals from colleges and institutions in the respective regions.
"The hubs will also engage with stakeholders in the region, attract talent, promote entrepreneurs for more start-ups," said George.
The tech hubs will create an ecosystem that will house a knowledge park, a science park and an incubation centre with common instrumentation facility for programme management in a network mode, linked to its hardware product incubator in Bangalore.
The new hubs will drive tech-based start-ups to access research and development centres and prototyping labs, skilled staff and access to raw materials for manufacturing products. The minister said that the stakeholders will benefit with support from infrastructure and mentoring that will help retaining leadership position nationwide.
According to state IT Principal Secretary Gaurav Gupta, the disruptive technologies were making enterprises to invest in the digital transformation of their operations to put up with their business and compete in a global market.
"Spending is shifting from IT services to line of business, with associated technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud and Internet of Things," said Gupta.
Though the minister and the officials from IT department have not spoken about the cost of setting up the tech hubs, these have been designed as a shared prototyping facility with co-working that will provide office space and amenities to incubate ideas and innovative products by start-ups in the respective region.
