B’luru-Vienna tech tango set to make giant stridesCollaborative efforts to launch a centre of excellence for quantum computing

Bengaluru, Feb. 19:

The Karnataka government and Austrian labour and economy ministry launched broad-based negotiations here on Monday to take their ties to the next level, pushing into new frontiers in technology, innovation and start-up programmes.

An Austrian delegation led by Prof Dr Martin Kocher, federal ministry of labour and economy; Katharina Wiese, ambassador of Austria to India; and Paul Rockenbauer, chief of staff of the federal minister of labour and economy, held discussions with the Karnataka team headlined by Priyank M Kharge, IT&BT minister; Dr Ekrup Caur, secretary in the department of electronics and IT&BT.

After extensive deliberations, Priyank Kharge expressed confidence that Bengaluru and its booming tech industry have the technical knowhow to stitch up skilling programmes specific to international markets. “Since we are very agile and flexible, we can customize some programmes very specific to the Austrian market. If certain skillsets are required for a particular project, then we will deliver the same with precision, also accounting for cultural nitty-gritties,” the minister said, signalling Karnataka’s intent in becoming a serious stakeholder in the technology arena with Austria as new partner.

The minister rolled out the red carpet to Austrian companies and said the Karnataka IT department was “more than happy to liaise with the visiting country”. “We plan to open a centre of excellence for quantum computing. We can further push the boundaries and work closely on collaborations,” he added.

Austrian minister Martin Kocher said they have an emerging ecosystem on quantum research and gave a backgrounder on the new economy of his country: Despite its geographical size, Austria hosts more than 3,300 startups which have set up shop in the past decade, employing more than 30,000 people. The country ranks 25th on the startup ecosystem index globally.

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