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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arguably become the most consequential technological advancement of our era, percolating not only into high-level business strategy but reaching deep into everyday life and governance.

Given its far-reaching implications, governments across the globe are racing to frame policies that strike a fine balance between fostering innovation and ensuring accountability. Back home, India does not want to remain a mere spectator.

With the homegrown AI market projected to cross $325 Bn in revenue by 2033, both the union and state governments are sharpening their focus on building enabling frameworks while addressing concerns around data privacy, job disruption, and infrastructure readiness.

For Karnataka, the stakes are even higher. As the home of India’s startup capital, Bengaluru, the state is keen to retain its edge as the go-to destination for AI-led innovation. Its approach goes beyond attracting investments, positioning AI as a lever to bridge the gap between policymaking and last-mile delivery.

At the core of this vision is a shift from traditional e-governance to what the state terms “i-governance” or intelligent governance, where data-driven systems enable faster decision-making, proactive service delivery, and more responsive public administration.

To understand how this is shaping up on the ground, Inc42 spoke with Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s minister for electronics, IT, and biotechnology.

In this conversation, Kharge discusses the state’s early experiments with AI-led governance, its evolving policy thinking around responsible AI, efforts to attract global players, and the push to build a full-stack deeptech and supply chain ecosystem.

Here are the edited excerpts:

Inc42: In March, the Karnataka Government set up a committee for responsible AI. How do you think it would help in job security at a time when the market is plagued by mass layoffs due to AI?

Priyank Kharge: This is the first time I have been asked whether job security will be part of the responsible AI conversation.

What we are actually focusing on is making our people more employable to ensure job security. To achieve that, we need to equip them with the right skill sets. Our committee on responsible AI is checking how AI could be deployed within the governance, how public data should be managed, and the extent to which it can be used in innovation, staying within the limits of data privacy and the use of AI in sensitive sectors like life sciences.

The panel comprises experts like technologists, legal professionals, and academicians. As a state, it is important for us to be policy-ready. We have had a few meetings, and we expect them to come up with a comprehensive framework in the next couple of months.

Inc42: How does the state plan to implement AI in its citizen-facing initiatives?

Priyank Kharge: We are in the testing phase across several use cases. In grievance management, for example, we are deploying a semi-autonomous chatbot with agentic capabilities to assist both citizens and administrators. In e-governance, we are piloting AI to detect whether submitted images have been manipulated, for instance, in crop loss assessments. Similarly, in livestock census efforts, we are exploring technologies like nose-print recognition, since each animal has a unique identifier.

We are also looking at how AI can help reduce procedural complexity within departments and improve the delivery of citizen services. This is a work-in-progress.

I believe the era of (traditional) e-governance is gone. It was largely about digitisation, which included putting datasets and processes online. What we need now is i-governance or intelligent governance, where the focus should be on leveraging data to serve people better, enable faster service delivery, and make decisions.

Inc42: As an individual, do you use AI?

Priyank Kharge: No, I don’t. But, I have experimented with practically every AI chatbot and firmly believe that critical thinking is important. It definitely saves time. These days, it is quite easy to identify AI-generated material. Whether it is concept papers or other forms of content, you can usually tell whether genuine critical thinking has gone into it, or whether it is simply the result of a well-crafted prompt fed into AI.

Inc42: Coming to Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS), this year’s theme is ‘AI & Beyond’. What does it reflect?

Priyank Kharge: The idea is that AI is inherently disruptive. We have not seen any other technology being adopted at this scale and speed.

While there is a lot of scepticism around AI, especially when it comes to jobs, we need to look beyond just the immediate concerns. AI is not confined to one domain, and it will impact different sectors and verticals.

We need to understand how AI will be used across governance, agriculture, biotechnology, manufacturing, defence, and beyond. That’s the rationale behind this theme. It allows us to gather insights, understand trends across sectors, and get a better view of the evolving dynamics. This, in turn, helps us to be policy-ready. Our ecosystem needs to be prepared, and our talent must be equipped to adapt to these changes.

Inc42: Data centres have evolved into critical digital assets, especially with AI taking big leaps. You have spoken about sustainable data centres, and even about making policy-level intervention. Tell us more about it.

Priyank Kharge: The reason is that while everyone is talking about data centres, we must also recognise the environmental cost of these emerging technologies. They consume large amounts of water and energy, and generate significant heat.

There are newer technologies evolving, like advanced liquid cooling systems and the use of recycled water over longer cycles, but the larger question is sustainability.

Since we have a data centre policy in place (Data Centre Policy 2022-27), we are looking at course correction by strengthening the sustainability component. Any policy intervention that adds value to this area will be welcomed by companies. We expect to have more clarity on this soon. Ultimately, this is about building industries at scale while ensuring they are sustainable and energy-efficient.

There is also increasing discussion around green electronics in manufacturing. We are still at a very early stage in India, and we have not fully conceptualised it at scale. We have to think out of the box.

Inc42: Speaking of electronics, what are the steps taken to attract investments to the state in this space?

Priyank Kharge: We want to build a strong deeptech stack. That is why we have announced a Deeptech Decade and pledged significant capital towards it. As part of this, we have increased our deeptech grants from ₹50 Lakh to ₹1 Cr. The response has been encouraging, with our first cohort getting over 937 startup applications.

Karnataka has the appetite and the foundation to build multiple deeptech stacks across sectors, whether it is agriculture, electronics, semiconductors, or biotechnology. We believe the next decade will be pivotal for IP creation, particularly in deeptech.

At the same time, when we attract large companies, the focus cannot be only on bringing in the big names. Even for electronics, we need to build out their entire ecosystem. Every large company depends on a supply chain, which has its own layers from logistics and packaging to components and micro-components.

If we can support and develop this entire ecosystem, we can offer a complete, 360-degree solution. Companies won’t need to look elsewhere. In that sense, we are building a supply chain sub-stack.

Inc42: What about investments from major technology players in AI, data centre, electronics, and so on?

Priyank Kharge: Companies like Anthropic and Mistral AI have already chosen Bengaluru. It is a strong validation of the policies we have in place and the talent available here. We have many more in the pipeline, but companies prefer that we do not disclose names until agreements are formally signed.

Inc42: You have rolled out the Dialogue with Diplomats initiative. Has it translated into tangible interest for investing in the state?

Priyank Kharge: We launched Dialogue with Diplomats last year. This is its second edition. The idea is to engage directly with diplomats and showcase what Karnataka is doing, how we are doing it, and why it is advantageous for them to partner with us.

This is not about investment pitching but for building an ecosystem for collaboration and partnership. Our ask is simple: let’s collaborate. This could be through incubators, accelerators, educational institutions, or even government-to-government engagements.

This approach has worked very well for us over the past year. We have increasingly become the first point of contact for their businesses, and they often end up engaging with us. A strong example is the India-France Year of Innovation, where France chose to partner with Karnataka. We also have France’s VivaTech conference partnering with BTS, GITEX Dubai coming to Bengaluru, and Embedded World, one of Germany’s largest electronics conferences, being co-located with BTS.

Additionally, over 35 countries are partnering with us through the Global Innovation Alliance. Overall, we have seen strong engagement from more than 80 countries, compared to around 35-40 earlier. I think collaborations with India through Karnataka are very valuable.

Edited by Kumar Chatterjee

The post Karnataka Drafting Responsible AI Framework To Embrace ‘I-Governance’: Priyank Kharge appeared first on Inc42 Media.