New Delhi, Nov 30 (KNN) The Karnataka Government haz launched 'Data City,' an international open innovation programme to develop innovative solutions to address challenges faced by Bengaluru.

The program will be implemented in collaboration with French-based utility company SUEZ, the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and NUMA, a French innovation company.

The initiative brings together city authorities, corporates and startups to address cities' challenges and develop innovative solutions to build sustainable and efficient cities, using data and technology, said NUMA in a press release.

It is a seven month program that aims to  co-create a problem statement, to identify relevant innovative startups from a pool of applications and to experiment the solutions that is crafted using data provided by the city of Bengaluru and the corporates," the release said. 

Commenting over this initiative, Principal Secretary, Commerce and industry Gaurav Gupta said that the growing cities are facing tremendous challenges and thus to find solutions, need to join our forces.

On the other hand, Chairman, BWSSB, Tushar Girinath said "Datacity represents an interesting opportunity to test innovative solutions in line with local issues and priorities, leverage private data for the benefit of public good and work closely with the innovation and smart city ecosystem. 

The key areas of interest involve Smart Mobility, Water and Waste Management, Energy, Smart Buildings, Transparency & Security and pollution management, the release added.