Striding Ahead

Bengaluru anchors the Karnataka model of start-up growth. But the state is now looking beyond its capital city to nurture other Silicon Valleys

- Pushpita Dey

At an annual congregation of the who's who of Bengaluru's tech ecosystem late last year, a top Karnataka minister announced that the state was setting its sights on second-tier cities to build a more distributed innovation ecosystem.

The implications were clear.

Karnataka, long synonymous with Bengaluru's tech dominance, was actively pushing to develop start-up clusters beyond the already-saturated Silicon Valley of India.

Of course, it won't be easy. But the state has the ingredients to make it happen-significant high-tech exports and a thriving services sector-factors that give it an overall score of 79.6 and first place among states for macroeconomic performance in the Outlook Business Outperformers 2024.

And backed by policy shifts in infrastructure and human capital investments, the government is crafting a blueprint to decentralise growth and and position Tier-II cities as the next frontier of India's digital economy.

Pioneering Policies

In 2015, Karnataka became the first state in the country to announce a multi-sector start-up policy. Under this, the state set up a start-up council, chaired by the chief minister, to conduct annual reviews. Scrutiny at the highest level ensured that the policy was effectively implemented.

"Being an IT [information technology] sector hub, the state automatically becomes an attraction for entrepreneurs and investors.