Karnataka invites innovative ways to tackle problems faced by Bengaluru

The Karnataka government Tuesday launched 'Data City' an international open-innovation programme to develop solutions to problems faced by Bengaluru city. The Data City will be implemented in collaboration with France based utility company SUEZ, which deals largely with water treatment and waste management, the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and NUMA, a French innovation company.

The initiative brings together city authorities, corporates and startups to address the city's challenges and develop innovative solutions to build sustainable and efficient cities, using data and technology, NUMA said in a press release.

"DataCity is a seven-month programme that aims at bringing together the city of Bengaluru and the corporates to co-create a problem statement, to identify relevant innovative startups from a pool of applications and to experiment the solutions that are crafted using data provided by the city of Bengaluru and the corporates," the release said.

The areas of opportunity that could be explored during DataCity are- Smart Mobility, Water and Waste Management, Energy, Smart Buildings, Transparency & Security and pollution management, NUMA said. Commerce and industry principal secretary Gaurav Gupta said "Growing cities are facing tremendous challenges in terms of services and infrastructure provision. We must join our forces to find solutions."

BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath said Datacity represents an interesting opportunity to test innovative solutions in line with local issues and priorities, leverage private data for the benefit of public good and work closely with the innovation and smart city ecosystem.