The Nissan Digital Hub at Technopark Phase III will house its global cybersecurity operations centre, which will monitor all the physical and moving assets of Japanese automotive major Nissan Motor.
The 24,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility will also focus on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data science, besides supporting the technology of electric and autonomous vehicles for Nissan. It will have the largest concentration of AI, data scientists and software engineers globally.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Nissan Digital Hub on Monday in the presence of Union Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons. Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu and Shashi Tharoor, MP, will take part.
Tony Thomas, corporate vice-president and chief information officer, Nissan Motor, said the hub would function directly as part of its headquarters in Japan.
“We are not building an offshore development centre similar to any large outsourcing company. “The team here will be directly part of my team, just like the ones in Japan, North America or Europe. We have a 10-storey building in Japan, the team in Thiruvananthapuram will function as the 11th floor of our headquarters,” he said. The facility in the State capital, which already as a workforce of 350 people, will become home to at least half of Nissan’s worldwide digital workforce.
The company has targeted to recruit 500 people by the end of the fiscal year. Besides, the firm’s partners have been adding more employees to the facility as an extension of the main team.
Social infrastructure
Mr. Thomas said Kerala had a long way to go to attract the best talents. “Thiruvananthapuram is not Bengaluru yet. There is much more to be attained as far as social infrastructure is concerned. Moreover, the lack of good global brands has also been a major handicap. We need to bring more of them to attract talents. Companies could mushroom only around talent pools, thereby creating more employment opportunities. An ideal ecosystem was necessary to bring in talented digital natives.
He also lamented the inadequacies in the higher education system of the State which has struggled to match up to the standards that existed elsewhere. An alumnus of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Thomas advocated an education system that was practical-driven rather than subject-driven. “Engineering courses were taught in a manner akin to Class 10 subjects in the Kerala scenario. The mere knowledge of JAVA or some programming language will not benefit graduates without the know-how of applying them. They must work on real-world problems. We are not looking for academic knowledge alone (to become part of our workforce), but also the ability to adapt and learn.”
Collaborative tech
The Nissan Digital Hub has been designed in a manner that incorporates collaborative technologies that enables connectivity with experts across the world. It also houses its flagship supercar Nissan GT-R, besides the yet-to-be-launched sports utility vehicle Nissan Kicks, hybrid car Nissan Note E-power, and the hatchback electric car Nissan Leaf.
