At BTS 2020, Karnataka Govt announces 8 MoUs with GIA partner organisations

The Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), is an initiative of the Karnataka government’s Department of Electronics, Information Technology, BioTechnology, and Science & Technology to collaborate with leading global technology and innovation hubs. At the 23^rd edition of the ongoing Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020, there has been participation from over 25 countries that are part of the GIA.

On Friday, Day 2 of BTS 2020, a press meet was organised to announce the signing of eight Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) between the Karnataka government and various organisations from GIA partner countries. Representatives from GIA countries, including Sweden, the UK, the US, Finland, and the Netherlands, were virtually present at the press meet and shared a brief overview on the respective MoUs, and the areas of collaboration.

The agreements span diverse areas, including skilling, ecosystem connects, market access, R&D, and bi-lateral exchange programmes, among others. The areas of focus include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, biotechnology, and semiconductors, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, said that the Karnataka government had established deep Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in areas of disruptive technology over the last three years in association with anchor institutes from academia and industry. Each CoE was mandated to create programmes and initiatives across four pillars – the startup ecosystem, industry, government, and R&D.

“As a next step for the GIA programme, we decided to take GIA collaboration to CoEs with the agenda that each CoE should have a GIA partner with whom they would collaborate in the areas of startups, skilling, R&D, and ecosystem connect. As a result, I am proud to announce that we have identified eight MoUs and intentions for collaboration.”

He added, “We believe that BTS this year will have a huge impact not only on the Karnataka innovation ecosystem but also firmly establish Karnataka and India as a global leader in innovation.”

Dr. C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Higher Education, Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood Department, Government of Karnataka, said, “The purpose of such collaboration is to create creating mutually beneficial technology partnerships and foster meaningful dialogue with global innovations partners. Each of the MoUs with our GIA partners will deepen country-to-country collaboration.”

The eight MoUs that were announced today included the following:

1. An MoU between the Karnakata Centre of Excellence for Data Science & AI and Business Finland for mentorship, industry connect, market access, skill upgradation, joint R&D projects with social impact, and promoting awareness of the development in the fields of AI for sustainable growth. The MoU is expected to bring the power of AI for agriculture, transport, health, safety, governance, service delivery etc.
2. An MoU between the Karnataka Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things and Swedish Incubators and Science Parks (SISP) for mentorship, industry and ecosystem connects and market access. This agreement is expected to position Karnataka as an end-to-end-solutions provider in the engineering space, and facilitate innovative applications across areas such as Smart City, Smart Health, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Agriculture, and others.
3. An MoU between the Semiconductor Fabless Accelerator Lab (SFAL), and US-based Applied Materials, Inc to explore incubation and mentoring opportunities, infrastructural support and international exposure for SFAL startups. The agreement will look to accelerate existing fabless SMEs to the next level to encourage domestic innovation and generate more employment in the Electronics System Design and…