Bommai was speaking at the eighth edition of the ET Startup Awards in Bengaluru on Saturday.
The chief minister said successive governments in Karnataka have sharpened focus on industry friendly policies and built an enabling environment for startups.
However, Bommai has envisioned his government’s role to be different from those in the past: “Karnataka wants to contribute $1 trillion by 2025,” referring to the national target to reach the target of $5 trillion economy by 2025.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had envisioned, in 2019, that the Indian economy would reach the size of $5 trillion, and be a major economic powerhouse globally.
Bommai said his government would play an active role in developing Bengaluru’s climate, fostering startups to produce more unicorns and decacorns.
He also had words of advice for startups founders gathered at the event. The chief minister said startups founders should scout for building goodwill in the market while keeping their focus on profits, linking the philosophical concepts of punya, meaning good deeds.
At the same time, startups should keep honing their skills to think “out of the box.” In that spirit, Bengaluru has made a habit out of creating startups, Bommai said.
The chief minister said Bengaluru, while still a capital for technology talent and tech-driven startups, should also aim to become a financial capital, leveraging the digital adoption for fintech products in the country.
Bommai exhorted founders at the ET Startup Awards, including Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar and Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath to accelerate innovation to help the state achieve its target of contributing $1-trillion to the Indian economy.
This year, Bengaluru-based online payments company Razorpay won the Startup of the Year award, while Shekhar Kirani of Accel India was given away the Midas Touch award, honouring investors who back high-scaling startups early in their game. Falguni Nayar of Nykaa was awarded CEO of the Year, while the Comeback Kid award made its way to Exotel for the hard-fought turnaround in business at the cloud communication company.
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