The allocation for information technology in the State Budget has gone down well with stakeholders by and large though it has also attracted the odd voice of dissent.
Hrishikesh Nair, CEO, Kerala IT Parks, found the budgetary estimate of 1.16 crore sq.ft of IT space in two years “achievable”.
“Government IT parks along with its co-developers would be able to account for 70 lakh sq.ft while SmartCity Kochi authorities have committed to complete 60 lakh sq.ft out of the proposed 66 lakh sq.ft by 2020-21,” he said.
Mr. Nair said the allocation to Knowledge City within Technocity in Thiruvananthapuram and Nano Space Park will be a big boost to those projects. “The proposed Knowledge City will not be limited to Thiruvananthapuram but is a master plan for developing emerging technology verticals to Kochi and Kozhikode as well,” he said.
Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission, backed the budgetary vision for an accelerator programme for attracting start-ups from across the globe. “Last year, we were able to attract start-ups from other parts of the country and now we need to bring start-ups from across the world by creating a global start-up ecosytem. As a first step, this is a positive move,” he said.
Innovation ecosystem
Prasad Balakrishnan Nair, CEO, Maker Village, said the budget would help increase the momentum in the shift of Kerala’s start-up and innovation ecosystem towards the accelerator growth path. “With the launch of the integrated start-up complex in Kerala Technology Innovation Zone, we have been able to trigger the rest of the country’s interest in the single biggest exclusive space reserved for start-ups and this budget will help further accentuate that interest,” Mr. Balakrishnan Nair said.
However, Joseph C. Mathew, IT expert and former IT advisor when V.S. Achuthanandan was the chief minister, struck a different note as he found the creation of additional IT space “unrealistic” even as he was critical of capacity utilisation in existing IT parks. “The allocation for KSITL (Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited) is inadequate considering that it is also entrusted with the implementation of K-FON (Kerala Fiber Optic Network). The proposal for setting up 12 hardware parks is a continuation from the 2017-18 budget and is not a joint venture between Intel and Keltron as it is made out to be. In fact, Intel has denied it and asked not to use its name,” he said.
