Create entrepreneurship ecosystem in districts to drive local jobs: K’taka task force to govt

Bengaluru: Building entrepreneurship ecosystem at districts to drive local jobs, developing digital skills and entrepreneurship mindset in schools and colleges, and launch of a future digital jobs initiative for engineering colleges beyond Bengaluru clusters are some of the key recommendations of Karnataka Skill, Entrepreneurship and Startups Task Force submitted to the state government on Tuesday.

It has also recommended the establishment of Karnataka Research and Innovation Authority (KRIA) as a nodal agency for strengthening the incubation ecosystem in the state on the lines of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) of Israel.

“…the task force has given a good report, we will begin its implementation. The report has been prepared after taking suggestions from all stakeholders regarding how things can be implemented practically,” Minister for IT/ BT, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood C N Ashwath Narayan told reporters after receiving the report.

The task force was constituted in April, 2021 with an intention to support youth with skill development and entrepreneurship, in order to make them prepared for the jobs in the future.

Task force Chairman and Principal Secretary, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood S Selvakumar said, “…we have prepared the report, keeping in mind the measures that need to be taken to create one crore employment in the next 10 years, with coordination between the concerned departments.” He said the main focus is on preparing the youth with digital and future skills, amid disruptions that are taking place in technology space.

The task force has recommended conducting a sample survey to assess the status of digital skills among students in the state, introducing digital skills for schools and college students through gram panchayat libraries, and introducing mandatory curriculum on entrepreneurship mindset development from Class 9 onwards.

It has asked for making career guidance a mandatory part of education from Class 8 onwards, and establishment of a central career guidance cell at state level to develop uniform content and curriculum for career guidance.

Further, calling for a district-level hub and spoke model for entrepreneurship incubation with all educational institutions in the district as spokes, the task force in its recommendations said, it has suggested extending the New Age Incubation Network (NAIN) scheme to all districts.

Also, setting up of Enterprise Facilitation Centres (EFCs) at district level, and ensuring EFCs facilitate market access, support in getting investment from government schemes, help in raising investment from angel investors, and soft loans from banks for budding entrepreneurs were recommended.

Karnataka’s Startup Vision Group Chairman Prashanth Prakash said the task force has looked into taking startup driven job creation that is there in Bengaluru, to every corner of the state, as it has not happened.

“…it (the report) looks for, starting from college level entrepreneurial mindset creation, finding sectors in which opportunities are there, and taking the startups to other parts of Karnataka and creating a bridge where employment generation can be seeded by the participation of the startups. This convergence is new,” he added.

Pitching for digital services and tech-based models, the task force has recommended the design and development of tailor-made skill courses for graduate students to address skill gaps and demand for skilled manpower in the emerging digital economy sector.

It has further suggested creating internship opportunities for graduates in future skills in companies like Infosys, Microsoft, IBM among others through Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM).

Regarding agriculture and agri-tech, the task force has recommended that agriculture and rural development universities and Farmer Produce Organisations (FPOs) should conduct regular capacity building programmes for FPO executives in association with B-schools of the state.

Startup companies in the agri-tech sphere should be linked to FPOs, it said, adding that a pilot programme should be started for promoting agripreneurs by linking them to FPOs and farm universities.