3-day Bengaluru Tech Summit starts today

BENGALURU: Three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018 will open at Palace Grounds on Thursday, with ‘innovation’ and ‘impact’ as central themes. Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem is valued at about $19 billion, and a top government officer expects more global money to pour into Karnataka, which is projected to have a revenue of Rs 11.7 trillion from the tech sector.
The big draw is likely to be the drone competition, which is open to the public. Karnataka principal secretary of commerce, industries and information technology Gaurav Gupta said the event will showcase some of the deep tech use cases — prosthetic limbs using IoT, incipient fire sensors, and early-stage gas detection for oil and gas pipelines.
Walmart’s buyout of Flipkart is the first of many more to come for Karnataka startups, said Karnataka principal secretary of commerce, industries and IT Gaurav Gupta, adding that more global money is expected to pour into Karnataka, which is projected to have a revenue of Rs 11.7 trillion from IT by 2025.
Ahead of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018 that opens on Thursday, Gupta said that the city’s startups can learn a lot, collaborate and do business with MNCs, venture capitalists and global partners from Israel, Sweden, Finland and other countries that are expected to attend the event. “We are not focusing on any one sector, so you will see experts, academics, VCs from various sectors such as agritech, medtech, environment, energy, etc. And it’s not just these industries, but all the application of tech in finance, aerospace and defence,” he said.
With Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem currently valued at about $19 billion, there was no dearth of partners wanting to collaborate, said the secretary. “Some part of nurturing of the startup ecosystem is being carried out by large players like IBM, Microsoft, GE, Siemens, SAP, with the end result that by 2025 the number of startups in the state will increase to 20,000, from 5,000,” he said.
The IT secretary also talked about how the event will showcase some of the deep tech use cases. “Our startups have designed prosthetic limbs using IoT, incipient fire sensors, and early stage gas detection for oil and gas pipelines. We are seeing the next wave of innovation,” he said. Adding that the government, apart from looking at solutions for real-world problems, is also looking at futuristic technology. The secretary said the drone competition (open to the public) being organised has seen lots of interest. The competition, just like in car racing, will be able to show the power, functioning and aerodynamic capabilities of their makers. “We are hoping drone racing will see more interest from the gaming community,” said Gupta.
KTech Innovation Hubs, which currently cover 24 cities and present in 58 institutions, will focus more on tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Gupta said Karnataka’s flagship schemes ‘Idea2PoC’ has funded 254 startups with a grant of over Rs 60 crore. To help startups, Karnataka has ongoing collaborations with Germany, Israel, France, Japan, Australia, Finland and Netherlands, and is actively engaging with seven other countries including USA, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Estonia, Sweden and China.