The second day of the 25^th Bengaluru Technology Summit (BTS 2022) organized by The Department of Electronics, IT, Bt, S&T, Government of Karnataka witnessed a flood of business visitors and experts from the IT, BT and Deeptech to the exhibition area and technology conferences. Several industry leaders were seen engaged in B2B meetings, exchanged ideas and explored potential business partnerships.

Shri. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship visited the exhibition area and interacted with startup founders. The minister announced that the Government of India has committed an investment of $30 billion in electronics and semiconductors, of which $20 billion will be invested in electronics manufacturing & design, and $10 billion in semiconductor manufacturing research and design. He also added that the Government of India has dedicated a fund that will directly be used to fund and invest in, along with matching contributions from the State, as capital into semiconductor design startups. This will further the goal of achieving at least 50 to a 100 semiconductor design startups in different use cases and different devices, across the next 1 or 2 years, getting started out and building out devices that will be then be incorporated into products and the overall digital ecosystem.

The day began with a plenary talk by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for 2020 and Scientific and Managing Director, Max Planck Unit, Science of Pathogens in Berlin. Dr. Charpentier spoke on “A research journey towards the CRISPR-Cas genome engineering technology” and elaborated how CRISPR-Cas is revolutionising molecular medicine.

This session was followed by a session from S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO on “R&D of India – Innovation for Global Impact”.  He spoke about how ISRO has signed MoUs with companies to work closely which include hand-holding in space technology and building processes from start to finish. A significant number of companies have the potential to become big players in the space sector and ISRO is playing the role of facilitator and helping in building technologies. He also added that Chandrayaan 3 mission will be in orbit in a few months and that ISRO is working closely with NASA in space technology areas.

“Technology as a key driving force for India’s inclusive development” was the theme of the third plenary session. This was followed by several technical sessions on Deeptech, Biotech, Fintech, Green economy, student entrepreneurship, and the global innovation alliance (GIA). Parallel sessions were held on the innovation journey of Bengaluru and Berlin. Japan and India debated on co-creating solutions for the digital world.

Highlights from conference tracks:

• At a GIA session on the innovation odyssey: The story of Bengaluru and Berlin, panellists discussed about how Bengaluru has a very mature startup ecosystem, with startups who have the best practices, and have tried, failed and tested methods, across all sectors.

• At an ITE and Deeptech session on the “ESG Next 150 billion USD opportunity – Next Y2K moment”, panelists discussed about how a lot of investment is happening across the world in ESG and given the current scenario, and the importance of using technology to implement various systems and processes to cut net zero emissions.

• At a panel on “Indian Digital Payment – The evolving global story”, speakers highlighted that India has the highest fintech adoption rate in the world at 87%, against the global rate of 64%. The discussion also spoke about how India’s fintech sector is expected to reach a $1 trillion market size by 2030, and investments of over $9 billion made in digital lending in the last 5 years have helped the sector grow alarmingly.  The sessions saw the participation of leaders and subject matter experts from Cashfree Payments, SBI, RBI Innovation hub, DoT, Cleanmax, Solar Arise, Avana Climate and Sustainability Fund, VVDN technologies and Tejas Networks.

Highlights of Day 2

• Plenary talks by Dr Emmanuelle Charpentier, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for 2020 and Scientific and Managing Director, Max Planck Unit, Science of Pathogens in Berlin; Mr. S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO
• Announcement of Startup Product Launch
• Key note address by Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India
• State Secretaries Conclave
• STPI IT Export Awards
• Other highlights of the day include an expo and bio poster visit, followed by a State Secretaries Conclave and STPI IT Export Awards.