Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 18 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Tuesday said that in three years, 2,000 IT firms will be incubated at the Startup Village in Kochi, which has already opened.
Startup Village is India’s first public private partnership model technology business incubator.
The promoters of Startup Village are Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Technopark and MobME Wireless.
“They had approached us at the Emerging Kerala meet and requested one lakh square feet of built-up space. We decided to give then 25,000 sq ft in the first phase by May 13 next year and the rest 75,000 sq ft by January 2014. In three years there would be 2,000 IT firms that would be incubated there,” said Chandy.
He added that this is a programme where fresh engineering graduates of engineering colleges or students can come up with bright ideas to make it a commercial venture.
“Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and co-chairman of Infosys, is part of the people behind the Startup Village. Our aim is to turn bright young engineering professional into job creators, not job seekers,” said Chandy.
The Village is equipped with 4G network, telecom labs, innovation zones, legal and intellectual property services, fully furnished offices and video conference rooms.
The Village provides a slew of incentives, such as a three-year service tax holiday and funding opportunities for tech start-ups.
