A technology park is expected to come up on a premises belonging to Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) in Mysuru.

Participating in the “The Big Tech Show” organised in Mysuru on Monday ahead of the upcoming Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021, Minister for Information Technology and Bio Technology and Higher Education C.N. Ashwath Narayana said the government was ready to take forward a proposal in this regard.

Later, the Minister met KSOU Vice-Chancellor Vidyashankar S. and discussed the proposal.

Mr. Narayan also said that a Mysuru Experience Centre, which gives a feel of the tech ecosystem of the city, will be established at the Dasara Exhibition Centre at Doddakere Maidan.

He hoped that the city leveraged it tech ecosystem and becomes not only a cyber security hub of the country, but also attract at least 15 Global Capability Centres (GCC) to set up their operations in Mysuru under the “Spoke-shore strategy”.

Mr. Narayan, sharing experiences from his recent visit to Dubai World Expo, said investors were ready to invest in Karnataka. But, he felt that the State should grow “Beyond Bengaluru” to absorb the investment.

Though start-ups in the State were attracting huge investments, most was coming from abroad. Mr. Narayan claimed that 90 per cent of investment for startups in the State was coming from abroad and domestic investors were contributing only 10 per cent.

Land for airport

Mr. Narayan assured the industry in Mysuru that the land required for expanding the airport at Mandakalli near here will be provided soon. He said he discussed the matter with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who had responded positively to the request.

Common facility centre

E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of IT and BT, while addressing the gathering announced that the Central Government had sanctioned ₹45 crore towards setting up a Common Facility Centre (CFC) in Mysuru. It will help the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry in Mysuru.

“The Big Tech Show” also witnessed inking of 3 MoUs. One MoU between Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), a State Government initiative to promote digital economy, and Bherunda Foundation seeks to attract digital economy investment into Mysuru and create employment opportunities. Another pact between KDEM and Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC) seeks to set up cyber ranges in key locations to make Karnataka the most favoured engineering and research and development destination.

Taara

The third MoU between Government of Karnataka and VMware will be to empower 1,500 women with the skills required to return to their technology careers. The programme called VMinclusion Taara offers upskilling and certification courses free of cost to women. “The objective is to help bridge the technology gap in women on career break by providing free training in the latest digital technologies from VMware”, said a statement.

Women would be provided with basic, intermediate and advanced certification. There are no pre-requisites for enrolling. Women from different backgrounds and industry can apply for the programme. The candidate should be an Indian citizen with a 10 plus 2 qualification and should have been unemployed for a period of six months or more.