Karnataka’s capital became the sixth centre in India to house a science and technology cluster when the Bengaluru Science and Technology (BeST) cluster was launched in the city.
The Indian Institute of Science said Thursday that the cluster was launched at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 by the central government’s principal scientific advisor, Ajay Sood, in the presence of former IISc director G Padmanaban and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.
Supported by the IISc, the BeST cluster aims to provide solutions for industries and the government. Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Pune host the other clusters in the country. “The conceptualisation of the BeST cluster is a collaborative effort of more than 50 organisations including major academic institutions, industry partners, startups, civil society organisations and government bodies. The seed funding approval for BeST was approved by the office of the principal scientific adviser to the government of India on September 6,” the IISc said in a statement.
During the launch, Sood said,“Bengaluru has enormous technological potential and Karnataka is among the leaders in science and technology advancements. The BeST cluster will pave the path for the future success of such initiatives.”
“A science and technology cluster is a collaborative ecosystem in a city or a region in which scientists, engineers, social scientists and entrepreneurs working in academia, government labs and industry identify and collaborate to solve socially relevant problems,” the IISc statement said, adding that such clusters would allow science and technology organisations to work together more effectively while retaining their autonomy.
The cluster has identified sectors such as health and wellness, urban life and futuristic technologies to work on.
Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO and director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, said at the launch, “Bangalore is a city of science, innovation and opportunity. The BeST cluster launch could be a landmark moment for science and technology in India and possibly the world. We aim to bring together stakeholders with shared ecosystems and identify and address problems first with locally relevant solutions, but then scale up nationally and internationally by building competitiveness globally.”
Ambarish Ghosh, of the IISc’s Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, said, “The Bengaluru Tech Summit is the ideal launchpad for the BeST cluster… In addition to the immediate social and economic impact at a city scale, we must also consider the impact on sustainability and being globally competitive.”
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