The State government on Monday launched Centre for Entrepreneurship in Kalaburagi under its Local Economy Accelerator Programme (LEAP), five-year initiative, which has a fund pool of ₹1,000 crore, designed to boost entrepreneurship in rural areas of the State to decentralise innovation, and accelerate economic growth across emerging tech clusters.
The Centre for Entrepreneurship — being set up in partnership with the KrishiKalpa Foundation — aims to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Kalyana Karnataka with a strong focus on agriculture, allied sectors,rural innovation, and emerging technologies, as per a State government communique.
The centre will operate on a framework of Mentorship for Market Access and Money Access, and would offer structured incubation, acceleration, capacity building, and entrepreneurial development. This would also comprise a Prototyping Lab to enable start-ups to design, build, and test world-class innovations locally—significantly reducing infrastructure and market-entry barriers.
Priyank Kharge, Minister for Electronics, IT, BT and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, said: “Kalaburagi represents the immense untapped potential of rural Karnataka — a region where over 70% of the workforce contributes to the agrarian economy.”
