Karnataka Proposes Budget for Centre of Applied AI in New IT Policy

Karnataka’s new IT policy may be finalised in July, state IT minister Priyank Kharge told the Economic Times (ET). The budget proposes a centre for applied AI for tech solutions with an investment of ₹50 crore over the next five years. 

A ₹300 crore fund of funds has been set up to support startups, along with a ₹100 crore fund dedicated to deep tech development.

The new policy will replace the 2020-2025 policy, which primarily focused on IT-enabled services and is set to expire this year.

“The IT policy will focus on creating new economic accelerators beyond Bengaluru. Infrastructure is a problem with any growing city, and that was quite naturally raised by stakeholders,” the minister said.

The government is also expanding its startup ecosystem beyond Bengaluru, to boost growth in cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi. In the last consultation, the state IT secretary, Ekroop Caur, along with Nasscom and many others, discussed strategies to extend the IT infrastructure into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 

Nasscom also recommended establishing a fund-of-funds structure specifically for deep-tech, with the state government serving as the anchor investor. In line with global standards, they proposed an investment ticket size of ₹50-₹200 crore to achieve effective scaling.

“The policy is currently a draft. The old policy will lapse this year. We’re hopeful that the drafting of the new policy will happen before the CEO meet in July, which we traditionally hold once a year. It is going through the IT Vision Group and larger consultations. Once it is finished at the secretariat level, it will come to me,” Kharge added.

As reported by ET, the integration of technology into multiple sectors has led the state to implement new policies concerning cybersecurity, engineering, research and development, global capability centres, and data centres.
According to the current policy, the government stated that organisations across various sectors must use IT and emerging technologies, such as blockchain, AI, big data, IoT, data enablement tools, and the upcoming 5G technology.