Deeply engaged with industry on skilling, positioning Karnataka as global talent hub: Priyank Kharge

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) Karnataka is deeply engaging with the industry to scale-up skilling in areas such as AI and cyber security, and progressive initiatives like 'Nipuna Karnataka' aim at future-readiness and positioning the state as a talent capital for the world, the state's IT Minister Priyank Kharge said on Friday.

Making a high-voltage pitch on the state's tech prowess ahead of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025 scheduled from November 18-20, Kharge said Karnataka has a string of firsts to its credit, including crafting policies from IT to ESG, and startups to data centres, ahead of others.

While every state is competing fiercely, Karnataka is competing with global destinations like China and Vietnam, he emphasised.

"...the rest of the countries today are looking at human resource, and this (Nipuna Karnataka) I think will be a gamechanger, not just for Bengaluru or Karnataka's ecosystem, but for the world. So we are looking at training people in Bengaluru who will work in Boston, in Brisbane, in Britain," he said at a conference.

As a prelude to the 28th edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS 2025) an open industry dialogue was held on Friday in the national capital. Kharge, the State Minister for Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, chaired the event.

The meet in Delhi gathered industry bigwigs from key sectors such as IT, deeptech, electronics, telecom, EV, biotech, finTech, gaming and animation, heads of prominent R&D institutes, as well as startup founders and investors.

Executives from industry associations such as NASSCOM, IESA, TiE and E-Gaming Federation also attended the event.

The upcoming summit is expected see convergence of over 1,00,000 attendees, including 20,000-plus startup founders, 1,000 investors, 15,000 delegates, more than 600 speakers, and 1,200-plus exhibitors. The event will host over 100 knowledge sessions, about 5,000 curated meetings and see participation from 60-plus countries, besides various states and Union Territories.

Aligned with the theme 'Futurise', the BTS 2025 conference will feature 10 tracks, including IT and deeptech, electro-semicon, digital health and biotech, the startup ecosystem, global collaboration and India-USA Tech Conclave, along with new tracks on AI universe, finverse, defence and spacetech and my planet my future. PTI MBI TRB