BANGALORE: The Karnataka government will set up the country's first Nanotechnology Center in Bangalore.

Announcing this initiative at the three-day Embedded Systems Conference (ESC India), which began here today, M. N. Vidyashankar, IT secretary – Karnataka, said the center, mentored by well known scientist CNR Rao, will be set up with an investment of Rs 500 crore.

Karnataka will also set up the country's largest tech-park, the "Knowledge City" on over 10,000 acres, for which the deal was under finalization with developer DLF, Vidyashankar said in the presence of Dr. Debesh Das, Minister for IT, West Bengal.

The Knowledge City would feature direct connectivity with the new international airport and house 13-14 SEZs.

Earlier, setting the theme for the conference, Poornima Shenoy, president, Indian Semiconductor Association said that the Embedded Systems design and development represented the next big opportunity for India in the knowledge sector.

"According to the ISA-Frost & Sullivan report, 81 per cent of the jobs in semiconductor and electronics chip design are in Embedded space and this is set to become 86 per cent

by 2015. The Indian semiconductor design industry is $4.6 billion in size of which embedded software is $3.7 billion," she said.

Shenoy lauded the fact that more than 70 per cent of the companies in embedded software space were of Indian origin and included such globally respected names as TCS, Ittiam and Satyam.

ESC India is being held for the first time in the country after organizing it in the US and China. The world's largest international embedded technical conference and exhibition in its India edition is showcasing the industry's most advanced technologies.

The Conference aims at helping the vendor community connect with the growing pool of decision makers and tap in to new revenue opportunities in the face of the rising demand.