Priyank Kharge

Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s Minister for IT and BT, has underscored the state's consistent leadership in India’s innovation economy. Karnataka recorded IT exports exceeding ₹4.5 lakh crore, with 47 of the country's approximately 110 unicorns based in the state. As he puts it, “Others may compete on subsidies, but we compete on capability.”

Under his watch, the state is transitioning from digitisation towards what he calls ‘i-governance’—intelligent governance powered by AI. Several AI-led initiatives are already being piloted, including a semi-autonomous chatbot with agentic capabilities for grievance management, AI to detect manipulated images in crop loss assessments, and AI for livestock census using nose-print recognition.

Kharge argues that the era of traditional e-governance is over, emphasising that governance must now be data-driven and responsive. In line with this vision, the Karnataka government has proposed establishing a Centre for Applied AI for Tech Solutions (CATS) with ₹50 crore in funding. It is also finalising a new AI-focused IT policy that introduces AI-powered tools for governance, including an AI-based Government Order Summary and Information Extraction Tool.

He has been an active participant at the 2026 India AI Impact Summit and welcomed Anthropic establishing operations in Bengaluru, further strengthening Karnataka’s position within the global AI ecosystem.