Startup
Bengaluru Tech Summit concludes on a high note as Karnataka aims to become global tech hub
The three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2024, which concluded on Thursday and witnessed a footfall of over 50,000 attendees, saw the Karnataka government aiming to position the state as the top technology innovation hub for the world.
Addressing a press conference, State IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge said, “Karnataka is propelling globally and we are working on such corridors with various countries.”
BTS 2024 saw participation from 51 countries, where during the three-day summit, the state government entered into partnerships with several countries such as Germany, Finland, United States, Japan, and Sweden.
According to the minister, these partnerships will be focused on specific areas of technology collaboration with each of the countries which is expected to go a long way in enhancing cooperation.
The three-day summit also saw the Karnataka government unveiling numerous policy initiatives encompassing the technology industry, startups and space industry. The state also came out with a separate global capability centre (GCC) policy with the goal of attracting around 500 such units, to generate a revenue of around $50 billion and create additional 3.5 lakh jobs.
Similarly, the government also came out with a space tech policy where it aims to garner 50% market share by 2033 in the country. It also unveiled a tech skilling initiative called Nipuna and signed a memorandum of understanding with leading global technology companies.
The minister noted that IT services export from the state stood at Rs 4.11 lakh crore for 2023-24. In 2022-23, the IT services export from Karnataka was Rs 3.2 lakh crore.
The Startup Springboard initiative unveiled at BTS 2024 saw over 185 startups pitching their ideas to 68 investors, with 120 emerging startups receiving mentorship.
“We have created the most conducive platform for the startups in the country,” the minister said.
The goal now is to have more than 10,000 startups from outside of the state capital, Bengaluru.
The Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024 witnessed 84 sessions with participation of 521 speakers. The event featured 686 exhibitors including 403 startups, 4,775 meetings exchanged, 570 meetings were conducted in the B2B Lounge, along with 35 on-the-spot physical meetings at the venue. It also had participation from several academic institutions.
On plans for next year, the minister said, “Next year’s summit will be bigger, better and bolder.”
Startup
Jack Dorsey-led Block’s Bitkey crypto wallet launches inheritance feature
Bitkey, the self-custody crypto wallet from Block Inc, founded by Jack Dorsey, has launched an inheritance feature on its platform to enhance control and privacy for its users.
The feature is set to roll out in December and launched widely in January 2025.
Bitkey hopes to disrupt the current landscape with the new offering that enables people who hold keys to their Bitcoin to have full control of their money. The company said that its inheritance ensures that the funds being held in a Bitkey wallet are transferred to a designated beneficiary after the passing of the owner.
“With this inheritance solution, we are offering customers a safe and simple way for them to pass their assets onto the next generation,” said Jason Karsh, Business Lead for Bitkey, in a statement. “Bitcoin is a multi-generational asset, and we think Bitkey should be multi-generational, too. We designed inheritance to be simple for beneficiaries to transfer, access, and manage their inheritance when the time comes.”
Bitkey’s inheritance feature will be initially clubbed with the purchase of Bitkey hardware devices. To set up the feature, the owner can invite a beneficiary through the Bitkey app. Once accepted, the inheritance plan will be created.
The company also added that to protect against any fraudulent claim, it has put in a six-month waiting period that must be completed before a beneficiary can access these funds.
Introduced by US-based Block, Bitkey is a self-custody Bitcoin wallet that can be accessed through a mobile app, a hardware device, and a set of recovery tools.
In 2023, the company entered the Indian market with Bitkey.
Startup
India’s digital public infrastructure finds many takers globally, says NISG CEO
The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) of India is now truly going global, as an increasing number of countries are seeking assistance to implement this technology platform to deliver various citizen services.
“There is a huge opportunity of taking it (DPI) globally,” said Rajiv Bansal, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) during a panel discussion on the topic “Digital Public Infrastructure of India going Global” at the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2024.
DPI in India has become the driving force for delivering services from both the government and private sector. These include the nationwide Aadhar identity and the unified payment interface (UPI) for financial services.
According to Bansal, NISG is engaged with several countries to come out with pilot projects or provide consultancy services on how they can implement DPI. Sri Lanka is undertaking a nationwide ID project, while other countries like Gambia, Myanmar, Belize and Fiji are keen to implement DPI to deliver several citizen services.
NISG is a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2003 by the Indian government, based on a public-private partnership model. It aims to assist governments in ushering in smart governance, process reforms and digitalisation.
Bansal said the DPI framework has achieved a certain level of maturity where it is based on fundamentals of open source technology, interoperability, subject to regulation and offering services for social welfare.
The greater interest for India’s DPI has largely come from developing countries who are looking at this platform for setting up a national identity setup similar to Aadhar. According to Bansal, developed economies are also interested in DPI but for other kinds of services.
However, Sharad Sharma, Founder – iSPIRT Foundation, was of the belief that the various functionalities from DPI till date in India are early iterations, and there is a vast scope to deliver numerous other services especially in the area of healthcare.
Startup
Deepinder Goyal clarifies Chief of Staff role is salaried, Rs 20 lakh condition a filter
Deepinder Goyal has clarified that Zomato does plan to pay the candidate selected for the Chief of Staff role, and the condition of paying Rs 20 lakh to initiative was merely a filter as the company has no plans to collect the amount.
In a post shared on X, the company’s co-founder and CEO also announced after closing the application deadline for his chief of staff opening.
This comes a day after Goyal put up the job posting on the social media platform. To make the offer not as lucrative, he announced that the role would not have any salary, at least for the first year. Not only this, the selected candidate would have had to contribute a sum of Rs 20 lakh to Zomato’s Feeding India initiative.
Any salary discussion would only happen from the second year, he said in the original post. During the first year, Zomato would also offer Rs 50 lakh to the charity selected by the candidate.
Zomato received more than 18,000 applications and closed the process at 2 pm earlier today.
The foodtech executive had claimed that the opportunity offers 10X more learning than a two-year degree from a top management school.
Goyal, in an earlier post, had highlighted that applicants came from a diverse mix of financial backgrounds, categorising them into those who have all the money, those who have some of the money, those who claim they don’t have the money, and those who genuinely don’t have the money.
It is unclear what the Chief of Staff’s duties will be as the job description is vague. The job would entail “anything and everything to build the future of Zomato (including Blinkit, District, Hyperpure and Feeding India),” the post read.
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