For the past decade or so, Technopark has been leading the way when it comes to best practices in the business environment. Whether it is with regards to infrastructure, employee engagement, corporate social responsibility, no one in Kerala, at least, does it better than the companies at Technopark. And in 2013 too Technopark seems to have taken huge strides on this front.
By far the biggest achievement this year, according to stakeholders in the game – Technopark authorities, senior management personnel and of course, techies themselves – is the opening of Phase III of the IT park, built on 92 acres adjacent to the Phase I (main campus). With its commissioning a few months ago, Technopark is well on its way to becoming one of India’s biggest IT parks.
Says M. Vasudevan, senior manager (business development), Technopark: “Phase III was our dream project and we are incredibly proud of it. We have christened the twin towers of the new campus as Anamudi and Ponmudi. Already three firms have started operations with many more on the anvil shortly.”
An official of GTech, a consortium of technology companies in the State, adds: “Phase III was a much- needed expansion that was really long in the making. Hopefully, it will come as a relief to the acute space crunch within campus.”
When it’s fully operational Phase III is expected to have commercial complexes, hotel facilities, a convention centre, and even a multiplex. On that note though, rent rates for Phase III are said to be around Rs. 35 per square feet, which may be prohibitive for many small and medium enterprises.
Another thing to cheer about this year, they say, has been the refurbishing of the roads within the campus. “The number of people in Technopark has swelled in the past year and because of that, of late, Technopark has had a lot of minor infrastructure issues such as bad roads, lack of street lighting, cafeterias in poor condition and the like. Towards the end of the year many of these issues were sorted out – some literally overnight such as re-tarring the roads within campus. It has come as a relief to the many commuters on campus,” says Dileep Choyappally, an HR manager with an MNC.
Despite a few hiccups with regards to the end of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) tax exemption scheme that affected many of the small and medium enterprises, many of the top brass of Technopark, talk of “a new synergy” between Park authorities and companies in Technopark.
“It’s a deliberate move on our part to engage more with the companies, particularly the small and medium enterprises, which need our support when it comes to marketing. As such we’ve actively been taking them to various industry exhibitions in places like Australia and Germany, where many of them have, as a result, received special treatment and reaped rewards,” explains Vasudevan.
Ansar Shahabudeen of Qburst Technologies, which once again got top billing at the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India emerging companies programme, opines that “2013 was a good year for Technopark. Many companies, including Qburst, seem to have maintained at least 50 per cent revenue growth.”
As always this year there too techies across the board got together for a lot of CSR activities such as blood donation drives, bone marrow donation, green initiatives and the like.
What the techies say they missed out on though was pan Technopark events, particularly Tech-a-break. “Not having Tech-a-break was a bit of a letdown. It is usually so much fun. Also, this year Natana, Technopark’s cultural club, too seems to have taken a back step,” says Dileep.
