Belagavi Tech Meet showcases home-grown innovations, KabadiMan stands out
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Belagavi : The fourth edition of the Belagavi Tech Meet was organised on August 30. The meet showcased the growing role of tier-2 cities in shaping India’s innovation landscape. Themed ‘Tech for Human Impact’, the event brought together entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and innovators. The Hindu reported that the aim of this meet was to discuss how locally developed technologies are driving meaningful change with global relevance.
Several home-grown products were launched during the event, including KabadiMan, a door-to-door trash recycling service that rewards customers while promoting sustainability, Hoopoe Electric, an urban electric bike designed and built entirely in Belagavi, Zen AI, an AI-powered platform simplifying online advertising and marketing and BeTCA Assist, a flagship AI initiative by the Belagavi Technology Companies Association (BeTCA) to provide tailored digital assistance for local enterprises.
According to The Hindu's report, the evening began with a welcome address by host Amit Soundalgekar, followed by a presentation on BeTCA’s journey and impact by Gajendra S. Tripathi. He underlined BeTCA’s role as a Section 8 non-profit collective of IT and ITeS firms, championing policy advocacy, ecosystem growth, talent development, and infrastructure needs. Mr. Tripathi cited BeTCA’s interactions with Department of Science and Technology (DST) Secretary Abhay Karandikar, who praised Belagavi’s innovation potential. He also noted KEONICS chairman Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda’s positive response to proposals for an IT park and plug-and-play facilities.
In a session on ‘Inventing the Future: How Founders Are Building Life-Changing DeepTech Products’, Kawal Arora, co-founder of DesiLLM, recounted his experience at Tesla and his return to India to build India-focused large language models (LLMs). He said the effort aims to reduce biases and make LLMs more suited to Indian users.
Akash Kulgod, founder of Dognosis and a UC Berkeley Cognitive Science graduate, shared his work on training dogs to detect diseases. He said his venture began during the Covid-19 pandemic after learning that dogs could detect the coronavirus. According to him, Beagles are especially effective for such work due to their temperament and independence.
A second panel discussion, ‘From Tier-2 to Global: Shared Learnings of Corporate Leaders and Entrepreneurs’, featured several success stories. Leena Padihari, founder of Alfanzyme Life Science, described her journey from a small loan-funded venture to a company now nearing ₹50 crore in revenue, with over 200 sugar factories as clients and plans for international expansion. Shekhar Gaonkar, founder of PetCart, explained how observing pet care trends helped him carve out a niche in the growing industry. Allah Baksh of Infosys Hubballi stressed persistence as the key to long-term growth. The sessions were moderated by Aadil Bandukwala of HackerRank.
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BJP using women's quota bill as front to pass Delimitation Bill that will break India: Mamata
Cooch Behar (WB) (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was using the proposed amendment to the women's quota law in Parliament as a front for the Delimitation Bill that would "break the country into pieces".
The TMC will fight this Central government's move at every step, she asserted at her party's poll rally here.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law, along with the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, to implement the proposed amended women's quota law, in the Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
According to the Constitution amendment bill, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats will also be increased in state and Union territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
Opposing the Centre's move, Banerjee alleged that "the BJP brought the Delimitation Bill while keeping the women's reservation bill at the front".
"The BJP is trying to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to nearly 850 through the Delimitation Bill. It will break the country into pieces," the TMC supremo said.
She also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not speaking the truth about the development of north Bengal at a BJP rally last week.
"The prime minister said nothing was done for the development of north Bengal. But we spent Rs 1.72 lakh crore on the development of the region," Banerjee said and asked Modi to cross-check data before making such remarks.
