‘Karnataka riding on wave of innovation amid COVID-19’ – The Hindu

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for rapid innovations and Karnataka is truly riding this wave, said Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan.

At the finale of the three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 here on Saturday, he said Karnataka fought the pandemic bravely, with a strong sense of responsibility, showing remarkable resilience, and what helped clearly were three factors: people, policies, and processes.

Calling upon the entrepreneurs and innovators, he said, “Entrepreneurs have to actively work together and come up with solution-oriented innovations that can help solve our problems, including the ones brought by the pandemic. Innovation, especially in leveraging disruptive technologies, is the need of the hour.”

This year’s summit, themed ‘Next is now’, has created a wider platform for the global exchange of knowledge and ideas.

“This summit has witnessed eight MoUs with our partner countries and four more are in the pipeline, out of which two MoUs will be signed with the U.S. in the aerospace sector. We are expecting exchange of ideas in this sector between India and our global innovation alliance partner countries, which may translate into investments in future,” he said.

E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology, said the pandemic had brought people and events closer from across the world. “We saw additional global participation this year, and future editions of Bengaluru Tech Summit will be even more vibrant, inclusive and truly global as we have realised technology has the power to transcend all geographical and physical barriers and boundaries,” he said.

Under the GIA, some 25 countries participated in the event besides several industry leaders.

The summit registered a total virtual footfall of around 2.5 crore visitors.