From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Feb 7: As an addition to the existing Startup ecosystem of the city and the State, the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) has set up an incubation center for Start-Ups, which was launched by Higher Education, IT/BT and Skills Development Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan on Monday.

Dr Narayan appreciated the initiative of private organizations such as BCIC coming forward to set up an incubation center and said it will be supplementary to maintain the leading position of the state in the emerging technological sphere.

"BCIC has set-up an Incubation Centre to support budding Start-Up entrepreneurs with the objective of providing necessary guidance, tech support, infrastructure, access to investors, networking, and facilitating a host of other resources that may be required for Start-Ups to survive and scale," he said.

The BCIC Incubation Centre aims to further the Start-Up ecosystem in the State by fostering Startups to scale-up to attain a competitive edge, he explained.

Welcoming the BCIC for providing incubation facility for aspiring Startup entrepreneurs at affordable prices, he recommended BCIC to look into collaborating with public universities to achieve the objective.

The National Education Policy (NEP-2020) implemented by the State would help to create the skilled human resource needed for the industry, he added that the government has been supporting to sustain the momentum with forward looking policies including Engineering R & D policy, programmes like ‘Beyond Bengaluru’, and by setting up Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) offices, he said.

Karnataka has a robust ecosystem with network of incubation centers in 30 engineering colleges beyond Bengaluru in 18 districts across Karnataka. In addition, Centers of Excellences for Internet of Things (IoT), Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC), Cyber Security and others have a strong focus on skilling and development of youth, Narayana pointed out.

Common Instrumentation Facilities (CIF) have also been set up at 5 locations. The government is encouraging various initiatives in line with achieving the vision set by the Prime Minister to make India reach the 5 trillion-dollar economy by promoting the growth of technology and innovation in all the emerging clusters of Karnataka, the Minister emphasised.

Akiko Sugita, Consul General of Japan in Bengaluru, and office bearers of BCIC were present.