Bengaluru: Karnataka Innovation Authority would be set up through a statute with powers to relax and overcome legal hurdles faced by startups engaged in innovative technologies and ideas, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said on Thursday.

The Authority would be headed by the Chief Minister.

Addressing the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2018, an annual event, here, he said the government was also creating a legal framework for the protection of intellectual property.

A blockchain-based intellectual property registry would be established, wherein ideas would be protected for enabling commercialisation, he said.

The government has been encouraging and promoting innovation by funding under the ‘Elevate’ programme, the Chief Minister said.

A grant of upto Rs 50 lakh is provided by the government to startups having innovative ideas for providing solutions to challenges in the socio-economic sphere, he said adding that 77 startups have been approved for funding this year.

“A sum of Rs 16 crore has been earmarked for this,” he said.

“Further, to ensure that the backward regions of the state, particularly the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, to also benefit from such initiatives, we have started the ‘Accelerated Assisted Elevate’ for the startups in the region,” he said.

As many as 10 startups from that region have been selected for a funding of Rs 111 lakh this year, he said.

The government has also begun forging global innovation alliances with countries in developing the ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, Kumaraswamy said.

“Bengaluru is ranked 20th among the global innovation cities of the world,” he said.

The information technology, biotechnology and related sectors had provided direct employment to over a million people and indirect employment to three million people in the city alone, he said.

The number of engineering and R&D centres of MNCs in India had increased from 943 in 2016 to 976 in 2017, he said citing a study by consulting firm Zinnov.

As much as 65 per cent of MNCs who have their global in-house centres were from the USA and 37 per cent of such centres of MNCs was in Bengaluru, which proves that technology engagement in the state was the strong foundation for investments, Kumaraswamy said.