Karnataka Believes In Ideate, Invent And Innovate: Priyank Kharge

In a special address at the summit, Priyank Kharge, Minister of State for Information Technology, Bio Technology and Tourism, Karnataka harped about his government’s achievements over the years in the field of information and technology.

He highlighted that Bengaluru is one of the fastest growing cities in India and the world. There is a progressive change across various vertical and especially in the technology front. The minister was very upbeat about how the aerospace technology, nano space technology and e-governance is panning out in the state. He said, “It’s not about coming up with the ideas but making ideas happen.”

The e-governance initiative has brought transparency in all the leading steps taken by the government. Such as in order to have procurement of getting tender there is no intervention from any politicians. With everything becoming electronic there is no political interference or nepotism.

He pointed out, “With things going completely electronic, citizens don’t need to run from pillar to post but it’s the other way round.”

Karnataka government has introduced a digital service ‘Sakala’ which is helping citizens of Karnataka with major documentation works. The citizens are getting services with a stipulated time limited to citizen related services such as birth and death certificates, hospital bills and many more. There are more than 720 services citizens can avail under this scheme. The Sakala program is backed by a comprehensive information technology network, developed by the National Informatics Centre.

The minister shred that whenever the request is made, the citizens receives an acknowledgement slip with a unique 15 digit number called the guarantee of services to citizen number. Currently this services is used by crores of people.

Not only in the high end areas but the government of Karnataka is also working into the remote areas across the states with different panchayats with the help of mobile. The state is functioning is such a manner that all these panchayats can connect to more than 6000 government booths at their fingertip. The government has computerised millions of land ownership in the state. Many cases of disputes, valuation and registration are dealt through electronic route. The documents are registered and delivered in thirty minutes within the same day.

The IT and Tourism minister also pointed out about the use of social media to get close to the citizens. The state has introduced Twitter and Facebook seva for citizens. Under this initiative, citizens reach out to police and police responds to any criminal activity.

“We are using, twitter and facebook to get closer to the citizens and understand their concern and also understand the demographic of the area.” He said.

Highlighting about the agrarian economy which runs the entire country. The minister said that “We have launched e-mandi. The farmers can directly link to the market and there is no middle men in the picture.”

The minister proudly shared that Karnataka is the only state in the country that doesn’t ask for investment. Other states call for an investment. But we in Karnataka believe in ideate, innovate, invent and then invest.

The minster pointed out that he has already identified the potential of the startup ecosystem. “We have multiple sector start up policy that sheds out opportunities, funding and validation of idea. We also felicitate the startup eco system with legal help,” added Priyank Kharge.

The current key focus area of Kharge is to develop the state as a major hub for research and development. He is positioning, Bengaluru as the biggest research and development centre in the country and number five in the world.

The state is creating centre for excellence in different technology fields, such as centre for analytics, centre for artificial intelligence, centre for gaming and animation, cyber security and Internet of things.