Bengaluru, 7 September

The Karnataka government on Monday discussed with Italian Ambassador Antonio Bartoli ways to strengthen cooperation in startups, innovation, research, space, AI and emerging technologies.

Both sides stressed moving from broad discussions to focused initiatives involving a limited number of startups, institutions and sectors, with successful programmes to be scaled up.

Discussions covered three to four sector-specific startup acceleration programmes, soft-landing opportunities to help startups access each other’s markets, ecosystem networks, industry partners and research institutions, and stronger links between innovation hubs, including Mangaluru.

On space and deeptech, they explored collaboration in space technology, Earth observation, disaster management and environmental monitoring. AI cooperation was also discussed, including links with Karnataka’s upcoming public-private AI university.

The meeting also explored industry-academia partnerships, knowledge exchange and institutional cooperation in science and technology, energy, urban technology and design.

On urban mobility, discussions covered integrated public transport, intermodal connectivity, AI-based passenger information and predictive maintenance. Karnataka highlighted its efforts to integrate public transport in Bengaluru and its Global Innovation Growth Alliance soft-landing platform.

Italy will send a delegation of companies and institutions to the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2026 to advance partnerships in startups, research, technology and industry.