Karnataka has been at forefront of services: Union Minister Jagadish Shettar

Large and Medium industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, on Tuesday, said that the service sector is at the forefront of Karnataka's industrialisation, with specific policies in aerospace, infrastructure, IT and startups. Shettar, while emphasising on the state's services prowess at the fifth edition of the Global Exhibition on Services (GES) said, "Karnataka is a leader in medical education with numerous institutes of repute based in the state. It is well known for medical value tourism as well."

Vast information exchange at the session

He further took to commenting on education services and highlighted that several reputed institutes such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) are located in Karnataka. He also mentioned that as many as 26 per cent of international students arriving in India choose Karnataka to study. While speaking at the session, he further added, ''Unleashing the service sector potential in Karnataka''.

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The minister also talked about how he envisions a great future for the state's tourism sector, bestowed with several historic cities, world heritage sites and biodiversity. Shettar further proposed to develop Jog Falls along the likes of Niagara Falls to further bolster tourism in the state at the inaugural of the three-day GES event.

Supporting what Shettar had to say, Karnataka chief secretary T. M. Vijaya Bhaskar, while praising the state, said that a pioneer in bringing progressive policies is the top services sector exporter in India. He said, "Services sector in Karnataka has been contributing to more than 68 per cent of Karnataka's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

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Karnataka at a forefront of services growth

Additionally, while talking about the achievements of Karnataka as a state, the Principal Secretary of Department of Industries and Commerce, Gaurav Gupta, said that though Karnataka has been at the forefront of the services growth story in India, it still made giant strides in several other promising sectors such as health and wellness, e-commerce, research and development, infrastructure and construction, music and media. Gupta also said that the Karnataka government is developing a Wellness cluster in Shivamogga to encourage the promising sector.

The session also saw the Chairman and Founder of Narayana Health, Dr. Devi Shetty, speaking about the healthcare sector. She said that the healthcare sector at $8.2 trillion is the largest sector in the world. She also pointed out that despite being a flourishing sector, only 20 per cent of the world's population has access to quality healthcare.

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Adding to it, she also pointed out the grave situations in hospitals. She said that 80 per cent of hospitals across the world cannot afford electronic medical records. The days are not far away when India will take the lead in making every medical record available digitally on the patient's mobile phone," Shetty said, calling on Indian startups to cheapen digitizing medical records.

Adding to the information exchange during the session, groceries delivery e-commerce player BigBasket co-founder Hari Menon said that brick and mortar retail and e-commerce will coexist as online retail is only a small pie of offline retail at 5 per cent market share. Menon further said that e-commerce is poised to see a growth up to 7 per cent in retail market share in the next 2 years.

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In addition to Menon, Dr. Nanda Kumar Jairam, chairman of Columbia Asia hospitals, while also speaking at the session said that Ayushman Bharat has changed the landscape of Indian healthcare sector. He further said that it also has necessitated the private healthcare sector to look at offering low-cost high-quality services. However, Jairam also mentioned that 70 per cent of healthcare services in India are provided by private players, a government scheme like Ayushman Bharat cannot succeed without effective government and private sector coordination.

(With inputs from agencies)