Breaking boundaries creates new life, new innovations, and new history. There would be no life if the chicks didn’t break the shells. There would be no life if the babies didn’t break the water in. There would be no women in our workforce today if they hadn’t broken the glass ceiling. It is all about breaking boundaries, said Karnataka Deputy CM, DK Shivakumar, while speaking at the opening session of The BENGALURU TECH SUMMIT 2023 in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
He said the theme of this year’s tech exposition ’Breaking Boundaries’ was a very relevant one as life was all about breaking boundaries.
He said this event has been breaking boundaries since 1998. It was the first IT expo in the country and it quickly became the largest tech summit in Asia. “Today, it is one of the key tech summits in the world. I am glad to hear that Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023 has broken new boundaries by becoming the largest edition in the last 26 years,” he noted.
He said in this context, it was also important to remember people and factors who broke the boundaries to make this possible.
“I still fondly remember the days of BangaloreIT.com when I was the Urban Development Minister from 1999 to 2004. Those were the important formative years of this event. And Bengaluru Tech Summit owes a lot to those five years,” he said.
Recalling that Karnataka was the first State to formulate an IT policy in 1997, Mr. Shivakumar said, S M Krishna government was the first one to set up the IT Department in the State. These initiatives were complemented by the efforts of the Government of India. It was the P V Narasimha Rao government which set up the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in 1991, which kick started the IT revolution in a structured way, he added.
In addition, many bureaucrats and politicians have worked hard to build the IT department in their formative years. If the governments had not broken those boundaries of red tape and myopia to create a new vision, Bengaluru would not be Bengaluru today, he stated.
According to the Dy CM, there were also many institutions which broke the boundaries. For instance, Texas Instruments broke the boundary to become the first IT company to set up its office in Bengaluru in the 1980s. Then a host of companies led by Wipro and Infosys broke several boundaries to build the IT ecosystem in the city.
“The IT revolution in Bengaluru did not start in the 1990s. A lot of people laid the foundation for that way before it all started. If the Maharajas of Mysore had not displayed a keen sense of scientific temper and patronised science and technology, Bengaluru would not be Bengaluru today. With the innumerable number of scientific-educational institutions including IISc, many scientific research institutes and industries a century ago, the science scene in Bengaluru would not there perhaps,” he further said.
“Again, if Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had not demonstrated the foresight to set up a series of public sector industries in Bengaluru, Bengaluru perhaps would not be Bengaluru. If all those visionary educationists hadn’t set up so many engineering colleges and technology institutes in Bengaluru, perhaps Bengaluru would not be Bengaluru today,” the Dy CM added.
“If Azim Premjis and Narayana Murthy’s of the world had not ventured out, perhaps Bengaluru would not be Bengaluru today. If thousands of Bengaluru had not chosen Bengaluru for their start-ups, Bengaluru perhaps would not be Bengaluru today. If the initial administrators of Bengaluru had not set up organised layouts like Jayanagar, Koramangala, Indiranagara, perhaps Bengaluru would not be Bengaluru today, Mr. Shivakumar noted.
Breaking boundaries come with rewards and fruits, he said,
On a physical level, Bengaluru city has been breaking its boundaries too fast and it has caused all the infrastructural chaos. “We need to fix it before it bursts at its seam. I will guarantee you that I will spare no effort in fixing Bengaluru. I will need to break a few boundaries to fix these issues and I won’t hesitate. We have big plans and you will see them on the ground soon,” he assured
