Kerala IT poised to ride the next growth wave

IT, home to three state-of-the-art facilities, Infopark, Technopark and Cyberpark, is truly capitalizing on its advantages and transforming itself into a silicon coast through focused initiatives in citizen e-enablement, IT infrastructure development and HR development.

Senior members from Kerala IT, in the city to participate at eIndia, discussed the various initiatives spearheaded by the State Government and various sops offered to attract investments from Indian and International IT, ITES and BPO companies.

Keeping in view that an e-literate citizenry is a key component of a successful e-governance strategy, the first step in taking ICT (Information and communication technology) to the masses has been rolled out in Kerala in the form of Akshaya, a significant effort in this direction. As a part of this initiative, Akshaya has set up 2,000 kiosks in the and with a mission is to have at least one IT-literate person in each of the 65 lakh families in the State. Piloted in one of the backward districts, Malappuram, this has evolved into one of the most dynamic interventions in public-private-partnerships of the State.

Akshaya focuses on the development of the state for addressing major issues like Creation of ICT access points up to village level through public participation Providing the skill sets necessary to the population to refine their skills and to use ICT in their daily life Provide ample content in local language relevant to citizens and to use the centres for the delivery of a variety of Services and Applications including e-governance, e-transaction and e-commerce.

On such initiatives, Dr. Rathan Kelkar, Director - Kerala State IT Mission says, "We are constantly trying to nurture the right talent, and have introduced special programs such as Special Post graduate Education Expansion Drive in IT (SPEED-IT) which offers strategy to attract good students into Masters and PhD programs in IT and IT-related disciplines by providing attractive scholarships by government and industry. MASS HR is another initiative by the Government to ensure consistent quality human resource for industry. The expected gains out of this initiative will be creation of an employable pool of technically qualified people."

Following the Hub and Spoke Model, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode will act as Hubs and districts such as Cherthala, Koratty and Ambalapuzha will act as Spokes. Kerala State IT Infrastructure (KSITI) Ltd, which has been formed for the creation of IT infrastructure in the State, will undertake the setting up location specific IT Parks in all Districts.

Commenting on the growth of the state, Mervin Alexander, CEO, Technopark- Trivandrum, says, "Realizing the economies of operation in the State, Kerala IT witnessed many international IT brands moving to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi for their excellent infrastructure and 24x7 power / data connectivity."

By having IT parks in smaller cities, regional disparities can be minimized, employee attrition and cost of operation lowered, and local talent nurtured. Special incentives will be given to companies commencing operations outside main IT hubs of Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, according to a press release.

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