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The newly launched ELEVATE NxT, backed by Rs 150 crore, targets deep-tech startups working in areas such as AI, quantum computing, SpaceTech, etc, offering grants of up to Rs 1 crore.

The state government on Saturday announced ELEVATE NxT and a Rs 75-crore Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund, as a push to deepen and decentralise the state’s startup ecosystem.

The announcements were made at a felicitation ceremony for 146 startups selected under ELEVATE 2025, held as a part of National Startup Month, where the Karnataka Startup Policy 2025–2030 was also unveiled. The newly launched ELEVATE NxT, backed by Rs 150 crore, targets deep-tech startups working in areas such as AI, quantum computing, biotech, green energy and SpaceTech, offering grants of up to Rs 1 crore.

Complementing this, the Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund aims to catalyse startup growth across emerging districts. A total grant commitment of Rs 38.85 crore was announced for the ELEVATE 2025 cohort, comprising 103 ELEVATE winners, 33 ELEVATE Unnati startups from SC/ST community, and 10 ELEVATE Minorities startups. Notably, 43% of the selected startups are women-led, while 43% are based beyond Bengaluru.

Addressing the event, IT BT Minister Priyank Kharge said the sustained success of ELEVATE lay in its mission-mode implementation. Launched in 2017, the programme provides non-dilutive grant-in-aid support of up to Rs 50 lakh per startup, along with mentorship and subsidised incubation.

Karnataka remains the first State to offer grant support to startups without taking equity. Sector-wise, the ELEVATE 2025 winners span agri-tech, biotechnology, food processing, aerospace, electronics, healthcare, IT services, education and fintech.

Under ELEVATE 2025, Rs 25.33 crore will be disbursed to the 103 selected startups. The ELEVATE Unnati cohort received Rs 9.52 crore, while ELEVATE Minorities startups were awarded Rs 3.65 crore.

Since its inception, Rs 287.85 crore has been disbursed to 1,230 startups, with 37% from beyond Bengaluru and 28% women-led. The Karnataka Startup Policy 2025–2030, with an outlay of Rs 570.6 crore, targets 25,000 new startups by 2030, positioning Karnataka as a global innovation hub.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

The Foundation has set a target of spending ₹4,000 crore over the next five years to build and operate a 1,000-bed charitable super-speciality and multi-organ transplant hospital in Bengaluru.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Azim Premji Foundation has set a target of spending ₹4,000 crore over the next five years to build and operate a new 1,000-bed charitable super-speciality and multi-organ transplant hospital in Bengaluru.

The hospital will come up on 10 acres within the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases campus in Bengaluru, which the government has agreed to lease to the Foundation for 99 years, he announced on January 17 after the Medical Education Department and the Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction and management of the facility.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said the State was grateful to the Foundation and to Azim Premji ‘for undertaking this noble initiative’, and for deciding to run the facility free of cost. “The Foundation will invest ₹1,000 crore on building the hospital, and around ₹400 crore every year to run the facility, amounting to over ₹4,000 crore in five years,” he said.

Over the last 25 years, the Foundation has supported teacher training, contributed ₹1.5 crore to the government’s egg distribution scheme in schools in 2024, and extended annual scholarships of ₹30,000 each to students from government colleges under the Deepika scheme, the Chief Minister added.

Public systems key

Azim Premji Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Anurag Behar emphasised the importance of strengthening public systems, saying private initiatives cannot compensate for weak public infrastructure.

“The Foundation believes that public systems are central to a good society. Our commitment is to work with the government to strengthen them,” he said, pointing out that healthcare begins with ASHA workers, primary health centres, and preventive work in communities. “Hospitals are critical, but the first goal must be to prevent people from falling ill,” he said.

Mr. Behar praised Karnataka as ‘one of the three most proactive States’ the Foundation works with. He noted that the Foundation’s 25-year engagement in Karnataka has shown progress most visibly in grassroots work in, among other places, Surpur and Sindagi.

Transplant hub

Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash R. Patil said the proposed hospital will provide transplant services across multiple organs, with 70% of procedures free of cost and the remaining 30% at minimal rates on the lines of the autonomous Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research and the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.

He said more than 5,000 patients in Karnataka are currently awaiting kidney transplant, and over 1,000 require liver transplant.

Dr. Patil added that the project aligns with the government’s larger roadmap to strengthen tertiary healthcare. “We have set a target of establishing one medical college, one super-speciality hospital, one trauma centre, and one cancer hospital in every district,” he said.

At present, Karnataka has 22 government medical colleges, 10 super-speciality hospitals, eight trauma centres, and eight cancer centres, and is ‘halfway through’ with the plan. He said the State intends to transition towards a universal health coverage model, as in the UK, in the coming decade.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

With Nanjangud Rasabale (Nanjangud Banana), Mysore Veelyedele (Mysore Betel Leaves) and Mysore Mallige (Mysore Jasmine), the Geographical Indicator (GI) products of Mysuru district, nearing their extinction, the ongoing Krishi Mela, at Suttur Jathra in Suttur Srikshetra, Nanjangud taluk in the district, has provided a perfect platform to conserve them for posterity.

The Krishi Mela titled ‘Krishi Brahmanda’ forming one-acre land, encourages farmers to give priority to grow such crops, with the experts providing required guidance on how to command a better price with a better market facility, along with exporting crops to foreign countries.

Banana

For example, Banana, which is one among the largely grown horticultural crops is known for varieties like; Nanjangud Rasabale, Elakki Bale, Pachch Bale (G9), which are popular among consumers too. The banana plants are prone to diseases like Panama Wilt and fungal infections, which generally come to notice only after seven months of plantation. The agricultural experts at the Mela, with the help of demonstration, educate the farmers on methods to be followed, to protect Banana plants from diseases.

Paddy varieties

As an alternative to Jyothi variety of paddy, which is more susceptible to diseases, the experts recommend the cultivation of four other paddy varieties like Sahyadri Red, KMP 220, Daksha and KMP 225, which is succinctly explained in a demonstration.

Greens rich in nutrients like- Chakramuni and Nugge and vegetables like tomato, brinjal, ladies finger and several other crops, are cultivated here as part of a demonstration.

Small farmers

It is intended at making small land holding farmers self-sufficient, by adopting mixed farming methods, with the aid of drip irrigation to maintain moisture of the land. The inter-cropping is another method of farming, that assures win-win  situation for farmers.

While not many take the risk of growing another crop as an inter-crop with sugarcane, the Krishi Mela encourages farmers to grow Avare, Halasande, Uddu and Hesaru Kalu. They contribute to the improvement of soil fertility and boost the yield of the main crop.

By adopting Akkadi Salu method, the land can be divided into six rows. While maize crop seeds can be sowed in four rows, thogari bele can be sown in two rows. The revenue can be generated from either of the two crops, to minimise the loss suffered from another.

source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)

Aparna Sharath is the first woman from the Tulunadu region of Karnataka to receive the ‘Nari Shakti Samman’ of the government of India, honoured by the Indian Embassy in Qatar, marking a historic milestone for the community.

She was felicitated as one among only 12 Indian women during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations organised by the Embassy, in recognition of her outstanding community service and leadership.

The honour acknowledges her significant contributions towards empowering the Indian diaspora and strengthening India–Qatar relations.

This achievement has brought immense pride to the Tulunadu region of Karnataka and the wider overseas Indian community.

The felicitation under the Nari Shakti initiative highlights her role as an inspiring woman leader on an international platform.

The event was attended by diplomats, community leaders, and prominent members of the Indian community in Qatar.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

Applications of the tool could span from disease biology to drug design, say scientists.

Researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, have developed a deep-learning tool that can predict how intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) latch on to their binding partners.

Shapeshifters, central to life

Proteins usually fold into specific shapes; However, IDPs, which are shapeshifting molecules vital to cellular communication, don’t form a fixed structure. Central to life, they guide signalling networks, help proteins move and find partners within the cell, regulate which genes are switched on or off, support protein folding and quality control, and assemble flexible cellular hubs called condensates.

But their flexibility has made it challenging to figure out how they attach to other molecules and to map them using traditional structural biology or computational tools.

On the other hand, it is crucial to understand this interaction to decode cell communication, understand disease mechanisms and design more precise treatments.

Protein language models

The tool, named Disobind and developed by the researchers, analyses the protein sequences and uses protein language models (a form of AI trained on millions of known protein sequences) to forecast which parts of a floppy, flexible protein will make contact with another protein molecule. Unlike current structure prediction methods, Disobind does not require any structural information or sequence alignments, and importantly, considers the binding partner. This is crucial because context influences interaction in the case of these floppy proteins.

Kartik Majila, lead author of the study, and his team benchmarked Disobind against predictors including AlphaFold-multimer and AlphaFold3. Disobind delivered consistently higher accuracy when tested on new protein pairs it had not seen before. When combined with AlphaFold-multimer predictions, performance improved even further.

Disease biology to drug design

“Applications span from disease biology to drug design. With Disobind, we can begin to reveal new interaction motifs linked to disease, suggest intervention points for regulating IDR-mediated interactions across the proteome, and better position disordered segments within large molecular assemblies,” said Shruthi Viswanath, who leads the Integrative Structural Biology Lab at NCBS. 

The team demonstrated Disobind’s capability across diverse biological systems from immune signalling molecules to repair proteins implicated in cancer and neurodegeneration. Disobind is open-source and freely available for researchers worldwide.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The prestigious Karnataka Crown 2026 beauty pageant, organised by Wenz Modelling Academy under the leadership of its founder Wencita Dias, was successfully held at BMS Hotel, Mangaluru. Conducted in association with Karunya Setu Foundation, the event received an overwhelming response, with a packed audience that included celebrities and prominent political personalities.

A total of 46 contestants competed across the Teen, Miss and Mr categories. The esteemed judging panel featured Bigg Boss Season 12 contestant and Sandalwood actress Risha Gowda, SIIMA Award winner Shubha Raksha, and actor, director and model Siddharth Shetty.

The inauguration ceremony was graced by title sponsor Swasthik Arya of Karunya Setu Foundation, Dr Praveen Martis SJ, vice-chancellor of St Aloysius (Deemed to be University), along with entrepreneurs Darshan Jain and James Mendonca, and Jeswita Dias and Wencita Dias.

A special highlight of the evening was the social cause segment, where children from an orphanage delivered captivating performances, highlighting the pageant’s strong commitment to community upliftment and social responsibility.

Winners of Karnataka Crown 2026

Teen Category: Renisha D’Souza (Winner), Moksha A K (First Runner-Up), Aadhya Salyan (Second Runner-Up)

Miss Category: Iona Menezes (Winner), Adhithi Acharya (First Runner-Up), Shanvitha Sequeira (Second Runner-Up)

Mr Category: Ayush Suvarna (Winner), Vion D’Cunha (First Runner-Up), Rishon Walder (Second Runner-Up)

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

Bengaluru real estate update: The office space is spread across multiple floors situated in a building named RMZ Ecoworld, and measures almost 4 lakh sq ft .

Global technology major Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab Pvt Ltd has leased close to 4 lakh sq ft of office space in the Bellandur area of Bengaluru for a total rent of ₹429 crore for a period of seven years, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.

Global technology major Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab Pvt Ltd has leased close to 4 lakh sq ft of office space in the Bellandur area of Bengaluru for a total rent of ₹429 crore for a period of seven years, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.

According to the documents, the leased premises span multiple floors, covering the ground to the second floors and the fourth to the ninth floors of the building. Honeywell will pay a starting monthly rent of ₹4.39 crore, equivalent to a rental rate of ₹110 per square foot per month. The agreement is for a seven-year tenure (84 months), with a 5% annual escalation clause.

Over the full lease period, the total rental expenditure is estimated to be around ₹429 crore. The company has also paid a security deposit of ₹26.85 crore, as per the documents.

The documents indicate that the space was leased along with 499 parking spaces for cars. In addition to the committed space, the lease includes an expansion plan. Honeywell has the option to take additional space in a phased manner at RMZ Ecoworld Campus 5B, comprising 55,619 sq ft on the third floor and 80,541 sq ft on the fourth floor, on or before June 1, 2026.

An email query sent to Honeywell and Arliga Ecoworld Business Parks Private Limited did not get a response. The story will be updated if a response is received.

Office leasing scenario in India

Office leasing across major Indian cities reached 82.6 million sq ft in 2025, a marginal 1% year-on-year increase driven by improved demand from domestic and foreign companies. Bengaluru, Mumbai, and the Delhi-NCR region led the activity, together accounting for around 61% of total space absorption, according to a report by CBRE.

In the fourth quarter alone, leasing touched 22.2 million sq ft, with the same three markets driving demand. Technology, flexible spaces and BFSI corporates led absorption with a cumulative share of 60% in 2025.

GCCs continued to power India’s office market, capturing a 39% share in Oct-Dec 2025. Global firms are expected to expand their footprints in India through their Global Capability Centres (GCCs). These centres are projected to drive 35-40 per cent of total space absorption in 2026, the report titled ‘CBRE India Office Figures Q4 2025’ said.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Honoured with the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman in the Lifetime Achievement category, Kannada playwright, novelist and poet Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara looks back at his days rooted in folk wisdom and laurels.

Nestled in the quiet bylanes of one of Bengaluru’s oldest neighbourhoods is Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara’s home, ‘Siri Sampige’, named after the play for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award (1991). In the two-storey house with a verandah shaded by plants and trees, students and young writers still drop by, bringing their books to him. He reads them all, with a stack of them placed carefully within easy reach in the living room. Just last week, on January 2 – his 89th birthday – he was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 3rd edition of the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman by The New Indian Express Group. The honour came with a cash prize of `2 lakh, a citation and a trophy. The citation hailed him as, ‘a Kannada writer, thinker, playwright, folklorist and theatre activist whose life’s work has profoundly shaped the nation’s cultural imagination.’

For Kambara, his love for Karnataka’s folk literature or ‘janapada sahitya’ was an inevitable result of growing up steeped in the stories that filled every moment in Ghodageri, a village in Belgaum (now Belagavi). “In the 3,000 people in my village, there would’ve been 15 or 20 who were educated. At the time, people only had janapada, not schools. We used to herd cattle; it was a strange existence. Janapada is a culmination of what the people are, what they say, believe and follow. Nobody knew how to read or write, but they used to sing.”

Growing up through the 1940s and coming of age in the 1950s, Kambara is part of a shrinking tribe of people who lived through the freedom movement. He comments on how the zeal and uncertainty of it all reached the folk arts too, saying, “When we started seeing words like ‘swatantra’, ‘horata’ and ‘strike’ come up in the newspaper (the single one we would get for the whole village), the villagers were shocked. They would make conversation with questions like ‘Have any other problems started with independence?’, ‘Have the British done something now?’ This was when these words and topics entered ‘bayalatas’ (open-air folk theatre) and ‘natakas’.”

He began writing simply because he had learnt how to, he says, adding, “We didn’t have any scripts but plays were born there. There’s a difference between telling the story and writing it. When you write a story, you rewrite, make corrections and look for rhymes. It takes work.” He would go on to write more than 34 plays, including the popular Jokumaraswamy. He also directed film adaptations of some of his plays – Kaadu Kudure received a National Film Award and Sangeeta (adapted from the play Naayi Kathe), went on to win a State award.

A story the litterateur often shares is of his high school teacher and Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer Krishnamoorthy Puranik, encouraging him to write and read out his plays in class. Even though his work drew from folk traditions when Navodaya (movement in Kannada literature) writers looked to Western romanticism, he credits many of them for their mentorship. “There were writers like Krishnamurthy Puranik, Kuvempu, Bendre – they were our seniors and we had them as support. Puranik was a great critic, writer and my teacher in high school – I saw him as all that at once and learnt from him,” he says. Another is AK Ramanujan, the pioneer who took Kannada folk tales to the world through his translations and scholarship. He was Kambara’s mentor at Lingaraj College, Belagavi, and later at Chicago University, encouraging him to follow his folk style. “A secret to writing is to always try writing, observe writers, ask questions and learn their works,” says the former Kendra Sahitya Akademi president.

For decades, the writer, poet, director and scholar has worked tirelessly, writing 13 poetry collections, six novels, numerous research papers, garnering widespread acclaim for them – from the Padma Bhushan (2021) and Padma Shri (2001) to the Jnanpith Award (2010) and prestigious fellowships. But the last few years have taken a toll, with his wife Satyabhama Kambara’s passing and his health declining. “There comes a situation when you don’t feel the urge to write,” he says, adding, “I write when I find myself wanting to narrate a moment to somebody, but I haven’t found that lately.”

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

Karnataka has made a landmark advance in quantum technology with the installation of India’s first commercial quantum computer at the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Dharwad (IIIT-Dharwad).

Minister Priyank Kharge said the initiative aims to bolster the state’s position in the national landscape for advanced quantum technologies.

The announcement came after separate meetings between the minister and leaders of Bengaluru-based deeptech company QpiAI and Singapore’s water technology firm ZWEEC, focusing on new technology and infrastructure solutions.

“Karnataka is moving decisively in the quantum space. The deployment of India’s first commercial quantum computer at the Indian Institute of Information Technology – Dharwad marks a significant milestone in building a world-class quantum ecosystem,” Kharge said.

During discussions with QpiAI, the minister reviewed plans for deploying the country’s first indigenously built commercial quantum computer at IIIT-Dharwad.

The state has also announced the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Quantum AI and Computing at the institute. QpiAI presented its strategy to expand its quantum systems from 25 qubits to a 1,000-qubit quantum computer over the next two to three years, reflecting Karnataka’s focus on building local innovation hubs and strategic partnerships in advanced technology.

In a separate meeting, ZWEEC representatives showcased their biomonitoring technology for detecting contamination in drinking water and identifying algal blooms at an early stage.

Minister Priyank Kharge said the government would examine the feasibility of piloting the technology in partnership with the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department, aiming to enhance water safety monitoring in rural areas.

Officials noted that these initiatives underline Karnataka’s ongoing efforts to collaborate with technology firms for both research and practical solutions. The steps align with the state’s vision of leveraging advanced technologies to address contemporary challenges and build capacity in emerging sectors.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

Directorate of Epigraphy in Hebbal to digitise 75,000 rare inscriptions under BharatSHRI.

Inscriptions of various kinds are vital sources for the creation and study of history. The Directorate of Epigraphy of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Hebbal Second Stage in Mysuru houses a vast repository of estampages — inked impressions of inscriptions — which is now being given a digital makeover.

Under the Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions (BharatSHRI), a digital epigraphy museum project, the process of digitising estampages has commenced at the Mysuru ASI Epigraphy section.

The digitised estampages are scheduled to be uploaded to the ASI website by the last week of January. The BharatSHRI project was approved in the Union Government’s 2023-24 Budget.

Epigraphical documentation

The digitisation initiative underway at the Directorate of Epigraphy is also being considered for extension to the regional epigraphy branches in  Chennai and Lucknow.

Estampages, which are replicas of original inscriptions created using inked paper, form a crucial part of epigraphical documentation. The Mysuru ASI Directorate of Epigraphy, the main branch, houses around 75,000 estampages.

The collection includes stone inscriptions, copper plate inscriptions and others, sourced from different regions of the country and representing a variety of languages and scripts.

Among them are estampages of the famed Brahmagiri inscription of Emperor Ashoka found in Chitradurga district, the Jatinga Rameshwara inscription and the Siddapura inscription. The digitisation of estampages was formally launched on Dec. 17, 2025.

Easy access

According to Dr. K. Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), ASI, the BharatSHRI project aims to create a comprehensive digital repository of India’s inscriptions.

Once the material is digitised and uploaded, scholars, researchers and the general public will be able to access inscriptional data remotely, doing away with the need for physical visits to the Directorate of Epigraphy.

Highlighting the benefits of the project, Dr. Reddy said that digitisation would significantly enhance inscription-related research, reduce the need for visits to museums and heritage sites, and help preserve the original estampages.

He added that Tamil estampages, earlier housed at the Mysuru main branch, have already been shifted to the Chennai branch.

The digitisation work has been entrusted to Crystal Infosystems and Services Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru. The firm is using specialised high-resolution scanners to produce images at a 1:1 ratio, ensuring faithful reproduction of the original dimensions. Some estampages measure up to 20 feet in length. The project is targeted for completion within six months, with the uploading of digitised estampages to the ASI website set to begin by the last week of January.

ASI appeals to public…

Information derived from inscriptions forms the primary framework for the writing and rewriting of India’s history.

Therefore, whenever inscriptions, copper plates or coins are discovered, the public should inform the ASI Epigraphy Branch in Mysuru (Phone: 0821-2304211 or 2304367), said Dr. K. Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), ASI.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, he said that the process of digitising the 75,000 estampages — inked impressions of inscriptions — housed at the Mysuru branch has already begun under the BharatSHRI project.

The initiative, he added, will significantly ease the study of inscriptions for scholars and researchers, which is the primary objective of the project.

source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)