Minister for IT, BT, Science and Technology C.N. Ashwath Narayan has emphasised the need for industry-academia collaboration with regard to promoting research and development and entrepreneurship so as to ensure economic growth of the country.
Speaking at the ‘Roundtable of CEOs’ held on the eve of ‘Techceleration-2002’ on Sunday night, Dr. Narayan said that the United States of America should be taken a model in this regard.
Elaborating on the initiatives taken so far through the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), he said that the government had set up KDEM to work as a facilitator between industry and government.
“Communication and world-class connectivity play a vital role in the growth of industries. Keeping this in mind, six airports are being built in the State. Infrastructure development in the highway sector is also progressing at a faster pace,” he said.
Elaborating on the “one district, one product” initiative, he said that a unique product would be identified from each of the 31 districts for development.
The objective was to handhold industries by providing access to market expansion, which in turn would contribute to economic growth of the State, he said.
Briefing about the progress under KDEM in the last ten months, he said Centres of Excellence related to artificial intelligence, data engineering, agritech, and food tech had been identified in Hubballi- Dharwad-Belagavi cluster and this apart ‘Hubballi cluster venture fund” too had been established.
Dr. Ashwath Narayan said that the initiative had led to eight companies becoming functional in the cluster providing employment to 1,200 employees within a year. Around 80 startups had been provided funding including 30% woman entrepreneurs. During the same period 65 trademarks had been registered, he said.
