New Delhi: The government of Karnataka has unveiled a series of initiatives spanning artificial intelligence development, wildlife management, urban flood control and child safety as part of the state budget presented in the Assembly.
Presenting the budget at the Vidhana Soudha, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the state will establish a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Two centres will be set up in collaboration with the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms and NASSCOM at a total cost of Rs 16 crore to strengthen AI research and innovation.
The CM Siddaramaiah also announced the establishment of a Leopard Rehabilitation Centre at Bannerghatta with an investment of Rs 5 crore. The facility will be used to rehabilitate leopards captured after straying into residential areas on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
To address urban flooding, the state will implement projects under the Karnataka Water Security and Resilience Programme, a five-year initiative supported by the World Bank. The programme involves disaster management and flood mitigation works in Bengaluru with a total outlay of Rs 5,000 crore.
In a separate announcement, the Karnataka Chief Minister said the government will ban social media usage for children under the age of 16. The measure, Siddaramaiah said, aims to prevent the adverse effects of excessive mobile phone usage among young users.
