- The three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit was attended by more than 10000 visitors, 4200 delegates and 350+ speakers
- Elevate winners receive cheques from the Govt. of Karnataka to provide impetus to entrepreneurship in the state
Bengaluru December 2, 2018 : The 21st edition of IT, BT and Government of Karnataka’s flagship programme Bengaluru Tech Summit concluded amid applause and praise from exhibitors, delegates and participants alike. The action continued unhinged with the day seeing varied topics in discussion, awards handed out and launches announced.
” There were conferences and seminars where thought leaders discussed path-breaking solutions using technologies like Internet of Things, GIS, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Big Data, and AR and VR. The summit also focussed on the opportunities for Indian startups abroad and emerging technologies that are changing the world. The day began with the product launch of QTPi by Minister Shri Priyank Kharge. He addressed how people are headed towards building the world’s largest product nation by sowing the seeds of innovation in school children and inspiring the young generations to think differently”.
During the session on Innovations in Agriculture, which was attended by keen attendees and was moderated by Edmond Rock, Research Director and scientific Officer, INRA and the conversation ranged from the importance of innovation in improving a country’s agriculture, how Agriculture like other industries made entry into the knowledge-based era, leaving previous resource based nature and how to take the technology from lab to the land.
One of the highlights of today’s event was the Fireside Chat with K J George, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT and BT, Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka and Naganand Doraswamy, MD and Founder, Ideaspring Capital. The discussion covered topics like emerging technologies and how to integrate them to make a grass-root level impct. K J George commenting during the session said “We are looking to create an industrial hubs in Hubli, Dharwad, Belagavi, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Mandya and other Tier II cities in next 3 to 5 years. Government is also trying to evolve them with the major source of manufacturing activities, Aerospace, mineral, sugar etc. Startup Karnataka and Elevate programmes have helped Karnataka Government play a key role in promoting innovation, all over the state.”
Taking it forward on the innovation ladder, in the session K J George added further, “We are pleased to support Indian Startups and since India is a democratic county and things are incomplete without people participation. Also, we have taken sandbox policy as a highlighted project.” The Innovations Driving Next Generation Enterprise by Ernst & Young took over in the next session with a keynote address by Dharmendra Saxena, CTO, Transneuron. He spoke about the needs of the next gen innovators and by fostering an ecosystem of innovation, the benefits can be driven far and wide.
The session on Decoding Industry 4.0 and Digitisation : From Vision to reality was moderated by Margit Helwig Boette, German Consulate. Digitization is seen as the fourth industrial revolution and is radically changing manufacturing, production, logistics and administration. She also added that now at this point in time no one can predict what will happen to jobs with digital revolution. Hence we should be focused on skilling which will require continuous learning not just for students but even teachers too.
The panel discussion that followed was moderated by Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, Senior Vice President, IOT Digital Connected Assets, SAP Labs who spoke about how customers are changing preference as quickly as changing their clothes and this can be addressed with proper automation and ML capabilities to understand what’s needed at the point of time. Technology needs to enable the constantly dynamic environment. The three day event saw some of the leading technologists, hobbyists, thinkers, makers, artisans, and entrepreneurs interacting with one another to celebrate, inspire, and get inspired.
The evening concluded in outstanding style with the Elevate 2018 Startup Awards held at the Bengaluru Tech summit. The awards are constituted to recognize promising startups of Karnataka, with an aim to encouraging more entrepreneurship in Tier II and III cities of the State. With over a 100 nominations received, 77 awards were handed out across five categories including IT/ITES, AgriTech IT, Med-Tech, Tourism, ESDM (Electronic System Design & Manufacturing), and BT. The average grant amount given to 77 winners is INR 23 Lakhs.
” The winning startups received a grant of lakhs from the Government of Karnataka. K J George, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT and BT, Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka handed the cheques to the winning startups. The evening concluded with eclectic performance and cultural program featuring some of the most memorable artists. The dignitaries released Sky Lanterns to bid adieu to BTS 2018 with new hope and aspirations for the years to come”.
Also, ‘Night Drone Race’ winners were announced last night that took place at the specially-built arena at the Bengaluru Palace grounds. The competition featured 26 pilots from across India and the maximum number of participants were from Karnataka. The Drone pilots who participated were of 12 yrs of age upto 28 yrs. The racing competition was the first of its kind in India and was organized by the Government during the tech summit. This was held in association with Indian Drone Racing League (IDRL).
The winner of the competition was Ritvik Suneel Nesargi (Pseudo name – Ouroboros) from Pune who emerged first in this racing competition; Mr. Aaradhya Kulshrestha (Pseudo name – SKY PiratesFPV) from Bengaluru emerged as the second winner and Pravesh TM, (Pseudo name – BLJ) from Bengaluru again emerged as the third. The first winner received a cash prize of INR 100,000, second winner received a cash prize of INR 50,000 while the third received a cash prize of INR 25,000.
Photo 1 Caption : Naganand Doraswamy, MD and Founder, Ideaspring Capital in Fireside Chat with Shri K J George, Hon’ble Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT and BT, Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka.
