The government intends to establish a working group with stakeholders from industry, bureaucracy, government and experts to come up with an action plan.
The Karnataka government plans to push the expansion of the IT sector in the state to search for geographic locations within the state, outside of Bengaluru. For this to happen, the state government launched a project called ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ which aims to give various incentives to companies to establish themselves in cities such as Mangaluru, Mysuru, Belagavi, Hubbali, Shivamogga and others in order to ‘build innovation and a technological ecosystem ‘.
Unveiling the plan on Thursday, Senior Deputy Minister Dr. Ashwath Narayan, who has the portfolio for TI, BT and S&T, said: “With working from home becoming normal due to the pandemic, the government hopes to establish a ecosystem in four cities that can create an effective talent pool. “
Currently, the state relies heavily on capital from which more than 90% of revenue is generated. With this in mind, the government intends to establish a working group with stakeholders from industry, bureaucracy, government and experts to come up with an action plan to carry out its ambitious project.
The government, the minister added, is considering reverse migration, where it will be possible for people to work efficiently from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and said the government is in talks with telecommunications companies to make this possible with a network without interruptions.
To further encourage film companies to these cities, the government plans to provide workspaces with plug and play facilities, business tax rebates, marketing expense reimbursements, patent expense reimbursements, and various other benefits for businesses. that meet certain established criteria.
This is not the first time that the Karnataka government has tried to decongest Bengaluru by trying to attract companies to move to other cities. In 2013, the then state government had established IT parks in cities such as Mangaluru, Hubli, Tumakuru and Mysuru and had even allowed exemption from stamp tax of up to 75% for IT companies in some of these cities. But in the past, these initiatives have not yielded successful results.