In Karnataka the Statistical department was established during the year 1944 by the then princely State of Mysore and has gradually developed into a department which is of the present order. The department of statistics was under the administrative control of Agriculture Department up to 1954 and was headed by the State Statistician who was called as ex-officio Director of Statistics. Recognizing the importance of statistics as one of the important tool for decision making in the expanding area of development programmes, it was considered to amalgamate all statistical works of agriculture, public health and administration and intelligence section from the secretariat department to form a separate department in 1955, the District statistical offices were established in all the districts except in Bidar and Kodagu where such offices were set up in 1965. With the increase in the work load and its variety, senior posts of Deputy Directors were created in the year 1964. In the year 1966, the Director of statistics was appointed as the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in Karnataka which was later on designated as the Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths in Karnataka. Consequently, the work relating to Births and Deaths was transferred to Directorate of Statistics from the Directorate of Health and Family Planning Services. In recognition of the increased responsibilities and the vital role, the department was redesigned as Bureau of Economics and Statistics in the year 1968. In 1969 the Bureau of Economics and statistics was declared as a major technical department.

Karnataka state has pioneered in several e-Governance initiatives in the country which have got national acclaim and have been followed by various other states. Going forward towards next era, Government of Karnataka has launched the Karnataka Geographic Information System (K-GIS) as a flag ship program of the state which is visualized as a technology to be a common platform that will consolidate and provide a future path that ensures availability of updated “GIS ready data” of specified standard that will go a long way in enhancing interoperability, integration, enabling the departments towards g-governance consistency and economy of effort. The concept is foresight of the Government of Karnataka and the Karnataka Jnana Ayoga (KJA), to set in process of consultation with the key departments in the government on the vision for a state GIS and for assessing needs through a broad consultation process. K-GIS is envisioned to be a major support to high quality state GOVERNENCE by embedding GIS in different aspects of governance – planning and implementation at national/state/local levels; bringing GIS support in decision making; enabling a sound process of monitoring development and 'identifying gaps in development'; make GIS data available at all levels-that helps bringing accountability and responsibility in state’s governance.