Bengaluru: At the times when “work from home” or “work from anywhere” has become the new normal in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has rolled out a new initiative “Beyond Bengaluru” focussed towards building innovation and a technology ecosystem beyond the city of Bengaluru.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr.C.N.Ashwatha Narayana, also the minister of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T who inaugurated “Beyond Bengaluru” initiative as part of “Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020” (Nov 19-21) on Thursday, said this measure was aimed at enhancing the growth of IT /ITeS, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM), and Telecom sector industries located at the upcoming cities of Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali-Dharwad and Shivamogga.

He also informed that the government was mulling to promote the development of such an ecosystem in four more places of the state. At present other places outside of Bengaluru are contributing just 5% of the total revenue of the industry and this needs to be increased largely to achieve the target of the state becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025.

With COVID 19 as the trigger to promote work from home or the concept of ‘work from anywhere’, Government of Karnataka is looking to effectively leverage and access the talent and skill available across the State, with focus on cities Beyond Bengaluru, he emphasised.

Ashwatha Narayana said, “A task force has also been established comprising of industry, academia and other stakeholders to prepare White Paper to enable the Beyond Bengaluru mandate. The White Paper would cover potential action points for promoting cities beyond Bengaluru, by proposing incentives and initiatives that may be undertaken for technology ecosystem development.”

There were efforts to develop the required ecosystem in cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Shivamogga earlier itself. But, that was not realised to the full potential due to many reasons. But, now the time is very conducive to go “Beyond Bengaluru” in the backdrop of reverse migration which has happened because of the pandemic and the government has resolved connectivity issues in tier 2 and tier 3 cities by working with telecom companies, he explained.

Ashwatha Narayana informed that the government had taken many measures including setting up of New Age Innovation Network (NAIN)as a network of incubation centres in 30 engineering colleges in cities Beyond Bengaluru, established Common Instrumentation Facilities (CIFs) and Technology Business Incubators in several academic institutions to catapult innovation and R&D outside Bengaluru, identified ESDM clusters to encourage industry to set up operations in the cities of Mysuru, Hubballi, Chikkaballapura, Chitradurga and others and has also set up VLSI Incubation Centre and Brownfield Cluster at Hubballi.

Shailendra Tyagi, Director, STPI, Bengaluru who spoke on the occasion said, an STPI centre would be established in the city of Davanagere in a couple of months.

Dr E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka said, “For enhanced ecosystem growth, it is important that we look at infrastructure development, market access, ecosystem engagement and talent development in cities other than Bengaluru. Furthermore, it is increasingly important, that we, as Government of Karnataka implement necessary steps to support and promote innovation, growth and development in these cities.”

Kris Gopala Krishnan, Chairman, Vision Group IT and B.V.Naidu, Managing Partner, StartupXseed Ventures addressed on the occasion. Mrs Meena Nagaraj, Director, Dept. of Electronics, IT /BT was present.

Incentives & Offerings for “Beyond Bengaluru”
• Financial support for Information Technology Hubs/ Clusters of up to INR 3 Crores outside Zone 4
• Financial support for Co-working Spaces/ Plug and Play Infrastructure of up to INR 2 Crores outside Zone 4
• Lease/ Rental Reimbursement of up to INR 3 lakhs (at the rate of INR 10 per sqft.) or INR 6 lakhs (at the rate of INR 1000 per seat) outside Zone 4
• Exemption on Stamp Duty of 75% in Mysuru, Hubballi, Dharwad and Mangaluru and 100% for all other Zones except Zone 4
• Applicability of Industrial Power Tariff instead of Commercial
• Quality Certification Cost Reimbursement up to INR 6 lakhs outside Zone 4
• Marketing Cost Reimbursement of up to INR 5 lakhs per entity outside Zone 4
• Reimbursement of PF/ESI at the rate of INR 2000 per employee per month for 2 years for all new employment created outside Zone 4
• Patents Cost Reimbursement of INR 2 lakhs for Domestic and INR 10 lakhs for International Patent awarded and R&D Support of up to INR 1 crore.