Eyeing level playing field to cater to nation's aspirations

PRIYANK KHARGE, Karnataka minister for information technology, biotechnology, and rural development and panchayat raj, tells Peerzada Abrar in Bengaluru the state should get its share of opportunities because it is a hub for information-technology (IT) services exports, technology companies, and startups. Edited excerpts:

- PRIYANK KHARGE

What are you doing to woo industry, including large technology and semiconductor firms?

We have unveiled the Global Capability Centre (GCC) policy, which aims to bring about 500 GCCs to Karnataka, and intend to create about 350,000 jobs. The aim is to have an economic output of $50 billion from Karnataka alone. It is a five-year policy, and I'm sure we're going to beat that by at least a year and a half. We have launched Nipuna Karnataka, which aims to enhance the skills of local talent. I think that is what will be propelling growth for the state, like how IT-enabled services did so in the 1990s. We also launched the space tech policy for the state and are looking at applications downstream as well as upstream, using space technology. We are going to start small with startups and then slowly move to small and medium enterprises, especially in manufacturing. These two policies are going to propel Karnataka in the tech sector. There are also private institutions, including "Startup Genome" partnering the state government to help accelerate startup growth in the state.

You have raised concern about the lack of a level playing field in the distribution of semiconductor development across Indian states. How are you addressing these issues?