No cut in funds for pure science by Karnataka govt, Minister

As the momentum is gainingfor the proposed all India march by the scientific community on August 9, Karnataka government today said there will be no cut in funds towards pure science and related research and development work from its side.
"I would like to assure and reassure every body over here that I'm not sure what government of India is doing, but when it comes to pure sciences, science and technology there will be no cut of funds from the government of Karnataka," Minister for Information Technology and Bio Technology Priyank Kharge said.
He said "this I'm saying with lot of confidence...We want to ensure that emerging sciences and technologies just don't die in the labs."

Kharge was speaking at the curtain raiser event of BengaluruITE.Biz -2017 and Bengaluru India Bio-2017 here.
In what is said to be first such attempt by those belonging to scientific community in the country, a march has been planned by them with a slogan 'India March for Science' on August 9 to press for higher allocation for basicscience research.
Earlier, speaking about the march complaining about government reducing spends in science and technology, Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw while heaping praise on the state government initiatives said scientists from the city should not be part of it.

She said "I agree- it is a very myopic thing to do, if that is what is being contemplated, because I think science, technology and innovation is really the future of any country or economy and no one can afford to cut short that investment, because we will be shooting ourselves in the foot."

"However, one thing I would say is that scientists in Bengaluru should not be marching for this cause, because if there is one thing that this government has done in a big way is to support science, technology and innovation," she added.
Karnataka government today announced that two of its flagship events, BengaluruITE.Biz and Bengaluru INDIA BIO for 2017 will be co-located at a single venue with the focal theme'Ideate, Innovate and Invent'.
The event which will be held from November 16 to November 18 here is expected to attract over 300 exhibitors showcasing products and technologies to over 10000 business visitors.

Both Mazumdar-Shaw who is Chairperson of Karnataka's Vision Group on Biotechnology and Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Vision Group on IT,complimented the state government for having one mega event which will have convergence and differentiation between technologies.