Start-ups in Kerala have something to cheer about. The government has fixed the price for nearly 25 products and solutions developed by home-grown start-ups and these would be integrated into its various departments as per specific requirements, M. Sivasankar, Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Secretary, Electronics and IT Department, told The Hindu on the sidelines of the #Future digital summit that concluded here on Friday.
Mr. Sivasankar said that government departments had already purchased eight to 10 such solutions of the nearly 25 solutions.
Start-up culture
“We had received nearly 60 ideas/solutions developed by the start-ups at a mega Idea Demand Day held in Kozhikode. The process of evaluating the efficiency of some other ideas proposed by the start-ups is progressing,” he said.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former CEO of Infosys, said a culture of setting up a start-up has taken root in Kerala.
“A start-up becomes successful over a period of 5 to 7 years. It does not happen in one or two years. Kerala embarked on this journey about four-five years ago. We are seeing signs of the first phase. Byju’s is a good example. There would be others,” Mr. Gopalakrishnan, who is also member of the State’s High-Power IT Committee (HPIC), told The Hindu .
Vibrant ecosystem
Stating that the State needs a vibrant ecosystem for start-ups not only for creating jobs but also for disruptive innovations, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said he was very confident that some of them will become successful, large and create employment. “Start-ups bring innovations to the market. That is also very relevant,” he said.
Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar said the Kerala government could encourage the start-up ecosystem in the State by adopting the solutions offered by the companies in its various programmes.
Scale-up
“For India, unless something is scaled up, it’s interesting to see but there is no impact. The impact is only when you have scale- up. And scale will come up only when its commercially viable or government is involved. The government has to indicate its interest and its willingness to integrate some of these solutions, because if the government integrates, you could do twice what you are doing now with the same amount of effort,” he said.
