“We have catered to the Bengaluru ecosystem, the Indian tech ecosystem and now we want to cater to the global ecosystem with our skills, innovation and research offerings, apart from (creating) the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem itself,” he told ET.
The ESDM semiconductor ecosystem aims to attract investments from global semiconductor manufacturing companies.
Part of this focus is also to create a larger number of investment hubs beyond Bengaluru, said Kharge. “We have higher subsidies and incentives anchored by the Karnataka digital economy mission,” he said, adding that this will ensure that the focus of the IT and manufacturing sector extends beyond the top cities to areas such as Tumkur, Chikballapur and Hubbali-Dharwad.
The state already has more than 100 chip designing companies within these ESDM clusters, he said.
“We want to not just get the big companies but also create a supply ecosystem for SMEs and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises),” said Kharge.
The minister said the state’s skill advisory committee for emerging tech is looking at more ways to upskill people to close learning gaps and make them more employable. He said the state is doing everything possible to address the infrastructural challenges experienced by companies due to adverse weather conditions and traffic woes over the past few