Bengaluru: Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on February 1, 2024, said that the biggest takeaway for Bengaluru from the Interim Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman was the establishment of a corpus for research and innovation.

“Biggest takeaway from the Viksit Bharat Budget (Interim Budget) for Bengaluru is the setting up of a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore with 50-year interest-free loan for research and innovation,” he said.

He said that the Namma Bengaluru leads the way in innovation with institutes like IISc, NIMHANS, HAL, NAL, IIM, IIIT and other universities and plethora of private companies. “This scheme will herald a golden era for the youth and streamline innovation for the nation’s development,” he said. Elaborating on the significance of the corpus for Bengaluru, Surya said that 60 per cent of the country’s biotech companies have a base in Bengaluru according to the Karnataka Innovation Report. “The state houses 400 R&D centres and 85 chip designing houses,” he said.

He said that 1 in every 4 companies in Deep Tech, Health Tech and Fintech Sectors raise funding in Bengaluru. “The city is home to over 800 colleges, out of which more than 100 are engineering colleges. It also has important academic institutions fostering research like IISc, IIM-B and IIIT,” he said.

He said that the therefore will provide impetus to such institutes and private companies to invest in research and innovate in sunrise domains. During her Budget 2024 speech, Sitharaman said that a new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘Atma Nirbharta’.

She also mentioned about the measures taken by the Central government to empower youth and utilise their talent for nation building. “The Skill India Mission has trained 1.4 crore youth, up-skilled and re-skilled 54 lakh youth, and established 3000 new ITIs. A large number of new institutions of higher learning, namely 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS and 390 universities have been set up,” Sitharaman said.

She said that the PM Mudra Yojana has sanctioned 43 crore loans aggregating to Rs 22.5 lakh crore for entrepreneurial aspirations of our youth. “Fund of Funds, Start Up India, and Start Up Credit Guarantee schemes are assisting our youth. They are also becoming ‘rozgardata’,” she said.

Commenting about it, Surya said that in the last 10 years alone, 3,000 new ITIs, 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS and 390 Universities have all been set up. “The Modi government’s impetus to youth-led development has given wings to their dreams and aspirations,” he said.