Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday asked officials to find a suitable location for a structure that will show the unicorn to represent Bengaluru as the startup capital.
Unicorn is a term used for a private company with a $1 billion (Rs 7,900 crore) valuation.
As many as 53 Indian startups turned unicorns in 2021-22, as per Crunchbase, a platform that provides insights on companies. Of them, 19 are in Bengaluru, 12 in Mumbai and 12 in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Bengaluru is home to nearly 5,000 startups.
"Since Bengaluru has the most number of startups and unicorns in the whole of country, a suitable place must be identified in the city to put up the unicorn logo in order to highlight and encourage it," Bommai said at a meeting.
Infographic | India to have 122 unicorns in next 2-4 years: Report
IT/BT Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, Startup Vision Group chairperson Prashanth Prakash and other officials were present in the meeting.
According to sources, the unicorn logo is likely to come up in between Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha.
Sources said the unicorn structure design is under process and will be ready in the next few months. "A leading full stock financial solutions company is designing it, which will be installed in the space provided by the government in a couple of months," the source said. This structure will be accessible to citizens and the government hopes it will be an attraction.
'Vision document'
Bommai instructed officials to prepare a vision document for the development of the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE). He said this at a meeting on upgrading seven government engineering colleges as Karnataka Institutes of Technology (KIT). UVCE chairperson B Muthuraman was present in the meeting.
According to a release, Bommai stressed on formulating short-term and long-term goals containing good concepts that can be implemented within the given time. "It is important to go for coordination with the institutes of excellence wherever possible to achieve success. The UVCE's success story must inspire others," Bommai said.
Bommai also said committees must be constituted for every instituted that is selected to be upgraded as KIT. "These institutes must be built on the foundation of values and morality. These institutes must make far-reaching changes," he added.