AMA With Priyank Kharge On How Karnataka Government Is Working To Extend Startup Ecosystem Beyond Bengaluru

A 30-something-year-old with kind eyes, quick wit, and wry humour. He stands out for his brilliant eloquence, easy charm, and commanding presence, and is a difficult man to reach at that. We previously tried connecting him with our Facebook Live audience thrice but all of them got unceremoniously cancelled due to technical issues and paucity of time. Despite his busy schedule, however, he was kind enough to offer us a live session from our Delhi office, which is how we finally managed to sit down with him to chat about the potential of the Indian startup ecosystem and the impact government policies could have on its growth. The youngest face of the Karnataka government, the man in question is Priyank Kharge, the Minister of Information Technology, Biotechnology & Tourism.

You can watch the whole session in the video here →

As one of the major proponents of the Karnataka Startup Policy, Mr Kharge is dedicatedly working towards transforming the state into a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. He firmly believes in embracing the power of technology to uplift traditional sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing and education.

Under Priyank’s leadership, the Karnataka government has launched multiple initiatives aimed at creating a complete support system for fledgeling startups.

During our hour-long conversation, he spoke proudly about the changes that these policies and initiatives have brought in the state’s emerging startup ecosystem. Here are the most interesting insights that Priyank shared during the session:

Karnataka Startup Policy: Vision Statement And Scope Of Expansion

Question: There is a lot that Karnataka is doing for entrepreneurs. Can you give us a glimpse of the government’s vision for startups?

Priyank Kharge: The Karnataka government is really focussed on ensuring that we move away from the services stand that we have. As most of you are aware, we cater close to around 60–65% of all IT services’ exports in the country. I think we have matured beyond the services industry and we are moving towards innovation. At present, we are the second best ecosystem for startups.

So, we are trying to see how we can foster an environment that is based on ideation, innovation, and invention so that these startups succeed. We currently have a single-point agenda of moving away from services sector and making Karnataka a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship.

With the ELEVATE 100 programme, the idea is not just to identify 100 promising companies. It is also trying to see whether these companies are actually elevated. So, it could include assistance in networking, idea validation, customer acquisition, access to markets, and funding. By next week, we will be tying up all the loose ends of the ELEVATE 100 programme, and start working on actually elevating these companies.

It was just an experiment for us to see how we can onboard VCs, startups, policymakers and mentors. It was a good learning curve for us. Hopefully, if we get all the stakeholders to participate, it would likely not be restricted to ELEVATE 100, but, it could be ELEVATE 500. The next big thing for us is the upcoming Bengaluru Tech Summit that is going to happen in November.

The 20th edition of this summit will not be your regular, run-of-the-mill conference. We are going to have discussions on emerging technologies, which will decide the direction the country should be heading in the next decade or so, with respect to policy intervention, regulation, and rule changes.

Question: Karnataka government has a startup policy whose goal is to create 20,000 startups by 2020. When we talk about startup & technology in Karnataka, Bengaluru is often the only name that comes to our mind. How is your government planning to replicate the Bengaluru model for other cities of Karnataka?

Priyank Kharge: Naturally, it is a very difficult task that we have set out to do because grooming 20,000 startups during the policy period itself is going to be very challenging. We understand that as well. Before we can groom 20,000 startups, we will have to at least look at 200K startups. To have these 200K startups within the Bengaluru ecosystem is also difficult thus, we are looking throughout the state. It’s quite amazing that innovation is just not restricted to the city of Bengaluru.

Even for the recent ELEVATE 100 programme, when we set out to seek the 100 top innovations of Karnataka, we found that innovation is being bred across the state at the bottom of the pyramid. What was interesting is that out of the 1,700 startups that registered for the programme, close to around 400 of them were from other cities like Hubli, Mysuru, Udupi, Raichur and Mangaluru.

It was very encouraging for us to see that. The Karnataka government is trying to push the ecosystem outside Bengaluru and we have succeeded in doing so in Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubli to a certain extent, but there’s still a lot more than can be done. Most importantly, we are pushing services to these tier-II cities. Last year, we clocked over $624 Mn (INR 4,000 Cr) in software exports only in these towns. We are doing all we can to reach out to startups outside Bengaluru as well.

Priyank Kharge On Women Entrepreneurship, Blockchains & Cryptocurrencies

Question: If we look at the emerging technologies there are plenty of them coming out like automation, virtual reality, machine learning and so on. Can you tell us how is government looking at these upcoming technologies and does the government have any plans regarding cryptocurrencies?

Priyank Kharge: The Government of Karnataka has always been ahead of the digital curve. We envisaged the IT policy way back in the 1990s, long before any other state government even though that IT had a potential. The same goes with emerging technologies. Like I said, from services-based industry, we have moved to R&D. From R&D, we are now moving to innovation. When I say innovation, it does revolve around emerging technologies like AI, Big Data, machine learning, animation, gaming, cybersecurity, and so on.

We understand that, and we are trying to build an ecosystem for that. We have already come out with policies for animation, visual effects and electric vehicle manufacturing. We are setting up centres of excellence for AI and Big Data. Soon, we will also have a brainstorming summit to understand blockchain. When people talk about blockchain, the first thing that comes to mind is cryptocurrency.

The government is trying to understand the technology behind blockchain and how it can be put to use in governance. Only then will we be able to take a stand on cryptocurrency. The onus, in this case, does not lie with the state government. The central government and the RBI have to take a decision on that first.

Through that conclave, we hope to come up with some kind of policy interventions or regulations for use of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. It is a bit tricky right now to address the cryptocurrency issue. Hopefully, we will have answers to that soon.

Question: On the eve of the International Women’s Day in March this year, the Karnataka government launched a $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr fund) for women entrepreneurs in the state. Apart from funding support, what are some of the other steps the government is taking to encourage aspiring female entrepreneurs?

Priyank Kharge: Women entrepreneurship is something of a high priority for the Government of Karnataka. In addition to funding, we provide female entrepreneurs with mentorship, legal help, idea validation and other resources. Thrust is given to women startup founders. During the ELEVATE 100 programme, close to around 350 women entrepreneurs participated, which is a very encouraging number.

Recently, we funded around 61 companies, out of which 28 were from the biotechnology sector and about 19 to 20 startups out of these have women entrepreneurs. Also, the government has announced a ‘Women Tech Park’, wherein 300 acres have been earmarked for women-run small and medium enterprises in the state.

We have come up with a new scheme, Ksheera Bhagya, to provide milk for adequate nutrition to students. With regard to STEM, I think biotechnology is one field that is quite popular among female students and scholars, which is indeed a good thing.

Another focus has been to make our graduates more employable through proper skill development training. So, empowering the girl child, female students, and women entrepreneurs has always been a core focus of the Karnataka government.

Collaboration: The Key To Bolstering Karnataka’s Startup Ecosystem

Question: Karnataka recently signed an MoU with Finland to build a Karnataka — Finland Innovation Corridor that would facilitate collaboration between the countries in innovation, research and development as well as startup incubation. Can you elaborate on that?

Priyank Kharge: So, firstly, why does Bengaluru have such a great startup ecosystem? It’s because we have government support. We listen to stakeholders and change policies based on their inputs and suggestions we receive. When we engage, we learn a lot. This is necessary if we intend to make Bengaluru a world-class destination for startups. How do we keep ourselves abreast of what is happening in the global startup ecosystem?

To that end, we have collaborations with Finland, Australia, China, Singapore and many other nations. We just provide a platform for entrepreneurs in Karnataka to collaborate and engage with startup founders based outside India.

Read about the full interaction with Priyank Kharge posted by Inc42 here →