The Hindu Business Line : Not yet a parking zone

Kerala would like to claim that the Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, offers the best in terms of infrastructure and opportunity. It's just waiting for traffic to pick up.

A view of the Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram

KERALA, India's most IT-ready State - the vision, action and impetus. Kerala, the next stop in IT.

With such inspiring messages, Kerala is aspiring to get a piece of the highly competitive IT space. And, helping in this vision is Thiruvananthapuram's IT park, Technopark. Companies with domains ranging from embedded systems to application development and animated content creation are present in the park.

The Technopark is almost hidden in the thick foliage of a hillock. One would think any entrepreneur would fall in love with the park and the environs, and set up a base in the campus. But, the lavishly spent-on campus and the beautiful environs have managed to attract only the small and medium-sized IT entrepreneurs, while the league leaders are missing.

Except for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has its corporate academy in the campus, there is no other large IT player in the sprawling 180-acre park.

The reason for this, says a TCS official, is the mindset among IT entrepreneurs, who think the State continues to be "labour-centric". The fear of frequent strikes in the State still grips IT entrepreneurs. "It is really sad that despite such a campus nobody is willing to come to the IT Park," he says. "It is difficult to change mindsets overnight. The State Government should work hard to change this, else Kerala may remain a low-key IT destination and the gap with the competing States will keep widening," he says.

The annual intake of human resource by the IT industry from the State is about 8,000 computer science, electronics and IT engineers, in addition to about 4,000 graduates in English. However, the sad part is, says the official, only few IT graduates remain in the State. Many migrate to the "tech" cities such as Chennai, Bangalore or Hyderabad, perceived to offer better job opportunities.

The social infrastructure is another reason why the Technopark is not able to attract IT entrepreneurs and professionals, the official says. Culturally, the city is active with film, music and dance festivals throughout the year, but "modern recreation" by way of pubs and discos is missing. Bangalore and Chennai score on this count, says the official.

Agrees Technopark's Chief Executive Officer, Rajiv Vasudevan. But, things are changing in the city. Rich and diverse entertainment, including trekking in God's own country, the beaches, health and pleasure resorts are available. Besides, the Technopark Clubhouse offers facilities such as swimming pool, fitness centre, table tennis, billiards, tennis and badminton courts.

With the 700,000 sq.ft space in the three existing buildings, Pamba, Periya and Nila, fully occupied, three more are under construction - Chandragiri, Bhavani and Gayatri in 400,000 sq. ft of space.

The investment in the park, says Vasudevan, is about Rs 125 crore, and there are about 60 companies, including 3 CMM Level five companies. Besides TCS, BFL Software and Tata Elxsi and Toonz Animation India are present. The park's exports were around Rs 225 crore.

Technopark has doubled its capacity, and expects value addition to go up by at least 50 per cent. At full present capacity, it should be generating an export revenue of about Rs 700-750 crore, he says.

"It is high time the Technopark got an enhanced share of the new IT investment in the country by providing a high-value, low-cost proposition," says Vasudevan.

Kerala, he says, today is the most promising among States for IT investment. The State has 100 per cent literacy, the highest overall telephone density (7/100 population) and the highest numbers of digital rural telephones. All of its 988 exchanges are digital, and are connected by OFC (optical fibre cable) to the National Internet Backbone. Besides, every single village panchayat (1,468 in all) is within three km of a digital exchange, and all the 14 district headquarters and 63 taluk headquarters are covered by this network, which is further strengthened by OFC backbones being laid by private players such as Reliance, Bharti and Asianet.

These advantages, coupled with SEA-ME-WE-3 and SAFE submarine cable landings at Kochi with 15 GBPS bandwidth, place Kerala in a unique position to serve bandwidth-intensive IT industries. The State Government also intends to spend about Rs 80 crore on e-Governance, he says.

As per the State's recent IT policy, Kochi is to be promoted as an ICT (information, communication and technology) hub where the facilities offered will match the best available worldwide.

A 200-acre hi-tech park will be developed in the city, and an IT corridor will connect the new international airport at Nedumbassery with the city.

In the second phase, in the Technopark, it is proposed to develop 26 acres with the participation of the private sector.

For the next three years a minimum of 1.5 million sq. ft space capacity will be created annually through 100 per cent private sector investment and joint ventures between the Government and the private sector, says the policy.

raja@thehindu.co.in

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