Kerala keen to take Kochi Smart City project forward

Kerala govt for citizen-oriented IT policy.

The Kerala government is making earnest efforts to realise the SmartCity project in Kochi, promoted as a joint venture with the Dubai-based Tecom, said Fisheries Minister S Sarma here today.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of India ICT Summit-2010, Sarma, who is also the chairman of SmartCity, said the government welcomed mediatory role played by MA Yousuf Ali, director of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to resolve the differences of opinion between Tecom and state government.
He however declined to comment on the details or conditions of talks between Yousuf Ali and Tecom representatives.

Inaugurating the conference, Sarma said the state was now ideally placed for rapid development of the IT sector. The IT industry in Kerala has registered significant growth in exports during the last few years. The exports grew to Rs 2,412 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 141 crore in 2001-02.

He also stressed the need for a common man-friendly IT policy in the state. “The state needs an IT policy which should bring the welfare services of the government to the common people. The IT sector needs to have an orientation towards the common people.”

Delivering the keynote address, Ajay Kumar, principal secretary (IT), said Kerala’s contribution to the national IT export basket has increased from one percent to two percent now. Small and medium IT industries have a major role to address the rural and domestic markets. According to him, availability of land is the major advantage for Kerala, regarding the development of IT parks.

S Mahalingam, executive director and CFO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), stressed the need to assess the preparedness of the industry for the changing technological trends. He said TCS has plans to recruit 35,000 people from campuses next year. “We have a detailed plan for expansion and we will be hiring more people as part of the expansion programme,” he added.

IT services major Infosys Technologies managing director and CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said the state is emerging as an attractive and investor friendly location. Kerala need to focus on theme-based IT parks. “If we can focus on a particular theme for each of the upcoming IT parks, it can attract more entrepreneurs of that particular industry. It is more of creating clusters or embedded systems of industries”, he added.

Gopalakrishnan also suggested that Kerala create a unique brand about the quality of life offered for the employees in the IT sector. “With its natural beauty and unique concepts like Ayurveda, the state can easily create a unique brand, which can attract high spending IT employees”.

Infopark Kochi to be expanded over 160 acres

The second phase of softyware park Infopark in Kochi, which may be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, will come up over 160 acres, said a top company official here Monday.

"We are getting into the second phase of Infopark's expansion. The land will be with us by the end of this year. We may look at building the infrastructure on a PPP model," said Infopark chief executive Siddhartha Bhattacharya.

He said it was still not decided whether the new park would be developed by Infopark or by the newly-promoted Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd.

Speaking about the existing Infopark, built over 102 acres, he said: "As of today we are full. In four and a half years, we got 9,000 people working in the IT park. We have already constructed 2.5 million square feet, and another two million square feet is under construction."

According to him, the two million square feet is being developed by Infopark and co-developers like Larsen and Toubro, Wipro and Tata Consultancy.

"Infopark on its own will develop half a million square feet," he said.

Maintaining that the downturn did not have any major impact on IT companies in Kerala, he added: "However, in order to assist small and medium-sized companies we have decided to defer 50 percent of the rent from units located in the park for a year."

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The Infopark in Kochi will complete its five years of existence on November 1, 2008

The Infopark in Kochi will complete its five years of existence on November 1. The IT park, established on November 1, 2003, will celebrate the occasion with a week-long programme from November 1 to 7.

The Infopark was started with four companies and less than 50 employees on 80 acres of land taken over from the KINFRA Export Promotional Industrial Park.

At present, the Infopark has 50 IT companies, including those from the US, Europe and Australia and 8,000 IT professionals. Its present turnover is Rs 500 crore. It was Rs 66 crore in 2004- 05. The Infopark also possesses 106 acres of land.

State Information Technology Secretary Ajay Kumar, who is also the chairman of the Infopark, told to this website's newspaper on Thursday that the Infopark could achieve 85 percent software export growth in the previous fiscal while at the national level only 25 percent growth was registered.

"The Infopark could also attract various IT firms like the Smart City, the TCS, Wipro and the Larsen and Turbo to Kochi. Kochi is a fast growing city and the Infopark can achieve a lot in the IT field in Kerala," he said.

"We are proud that we could complete preparations for starting three Infoparks in Cherthala, Ambalappuzha and Koratti which will be a milestone in the history of Infopark, Kochi. All these parks will be operational within three years," said Infopark Chief Executive Officer Siddarth Bhattacharya.

Infopark senior business development manager Nisanth Kumar said that at the time of its launch the Infopark had only 1-lakh sq ft building - Thapasya.

Currently, the Infopark has 22-lakh sq ft building and the construction for another 22-lakh sq ft is in progress, he said.

It was in July 2004 that the Wipro, one of the leading firms in the Infopark, started its operation in Kochi.

The Larsen and Toubro started its operation in 2005.

Infopark senior technical advisor K Kurien said that as part of our celebrations, we are going to launch new projects like health club, monthly journal, shopping complex, club-house and guest house on the campus.

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Job Opportunity for 3000 - Tejomaya at infopark kochi is ready

Tejomaya is situated near Smart City Kochi

Inauguration: 15th March 2000 by Kerala CM V.S. Achutanandhan

Experience the beauty of bountiful nature within L&T Tech Park. As the name TEJOMAYA suggest, the building is resplendent with the effulgent energy pervading all over. Green-Tech in character, they are replete with energy efficient systems and state-of-the-art Technology: -

• Built over an area of 4 Acres of land within the Infopark Campus.
• Total built-up area of 4.00 Lakh Sq.ft.
• Centrally Air-conditioned Space.
• Highly reliable power system.
• Building management system for optimisation of energy consumption.
• Assured water supply & sewage treatment plant of 300m³ capacity.
• DG Power Back up.
• Fully equipped with the most modern infrastructure facilities.
• Data-Voice Connectivity through multiple service providers.
• Granite Flooring & Cladding in the entrance & lift lobbies.
• Vitrified tile flooring in the atrium, service corridor, and toilets.

HDIL - Rs 4000 crore Cybercity project at Kochi

A Rs 4000 crore Cyber city project for the IT/ITES sector is being developed by Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) at nearby Kalamassery, which will be Kerala's first integrated IT township.

HDIL is one of the largest Real Estate Development companies in the country. The Cyber city, spread over a 70 acre land acquired from the Public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), will have besides IT/ITES, residential apartments, villas, schools, shopping malls, multiplex, club house, service apartments and a star hotel, Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, chairman, HDIL, told reporters here.

This is HDIL's fourth such project in India. The project's foundation stone will be laid by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on January 19. Cybercity would provide 60,000 direct and 1,50,000 indirect job opportunities at Kochi and is expected to be completed over a four-year period.

The HDIL cybercity will have a built up area of 80 lakh square feet and is the company's first flagship IT project in Kerala.The cybercity will be developed into various zones of residential, IT, Commercial, Hotel, Social and Infrastructure amenities, he said. The project would generate a revenue of Rs 425 core to the state government by way of stamp and registration duty and Employee Welfare and Village tax. Lower cost for IT space, huge pool of talent and qualified manpower had made the company prefer Kochi to Bangalore and Hyderabad.

News Source: Manorama

HDIL Website
About HDIL: Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited is a listed real estate development company in India, with significant operations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. HDIL's business focuses on Real Estate Development, including construction and development of residential projects and, more recently, commercial and retail projects, Slum Rehabilitation and Development, including clearing slum land and rehousing slum dwellers, and Land Development, including development of infrastructure on land which the company then sells to other property developers. HDIL has an integrated in-house development team which covers all aspects of property development from project identification and inception through construction to completion and sale.

Since incorporation in 1996, HDIL has developed 23 projects covering approximately 19.29 million square feet of saleable area, including approximately 12,730,000 square feet (1,183,000 m²) of land sold to other builders after Land Development, primarily in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. HDIL also have constructed an additional 1,900,000 square feet (177,000 m²) of rehabilitation housing area under slum rehabilitation schemes. Via

Cabinet nod for separate IT firm

The Kerala government has sought to decentralise the booming information technology industry by setting up a separate company to develop infrastructure for IT companies across the state.

The state cabinet that met here yesterday has given the go-ahead for establishing the company with private participation. The government will have 51 per cent stake in the company called IT Infrastructure Kerala (ITIK), Chief Minister V.S Achuthanandan told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

He said that a sum of Rs500 million will be set apart for the new venture in the coming financial year. The move is on the basis of the government’s IT policy, envisaging development of small towns with basic infrastructure for the IT industry in a hub-and-spoke model.

The government has identified 12 such towns. Work has already started for setting up IT parks in Palghat, Calicut, Aleppey and Quilon in addition to massive expansion of infrastructure in Trivandrum and Cochin, which have already emerged as major IT hubs.

While the government has joined hands with Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone Authority (TECOM) to set up a Smart City in Cochin, a Technocity is being built in Trivandrum as part of the Technopark to attract more IT companies into the state.

The IT industry now employs over 30,000 professionals. The government expects to create another 170,000 new jobs through the expansion of infrastructure at Cochin and Trivandrum. The number of IT jobs in the state could go up to one million with the development of infrastructure in small towns, according to experts.

The cabinet has also given approval for signing the agreement with the Pathi Bell for resuming the suspended road development works as part of the World Bank-aided Kerala State Transport Project.

The chief minister said that the government had succeeded in bringing down the arbitration claim made by the Malaysian company from Rs960 million to Rs35 million.

He said that the government would sign a fresh contract with the company and commence the work.

source:khaleejtimes

Big IT projects may help State catch up with front runners

Its software exports are dwarfed by strides made by neighbouring States

‘Software exports expected to touch Rs.1,200 crore this year’

Kochi accounted for only a quarter of the State’s software exports during 2006-07

Even as the information technology (IT) sector in Kerala is expected to cross a milestone this year, when software exports surpass the anticipated Rs.1,000-crore mark, it is looking to mega projects, such as the Smart City, for which the foundation stone was laid here on Friday, to catapult the State into the league of front runners in the country’s software and services export arena.

The State’s software exports during 2006-07 totalled Rs.750 crore and this year (2007-08), the figure is expected to touch Rs.1,200 crore, said Ramesh Kumar, Director, Software Technology Parks of India, Thiruvananthapuram.

The exports increased by 66 per cent during 2006-07 from the Rs.452 crore of the previous year.

When seen in a broader regional perspective, these figures are dwarfed by the huge strides that the neighbouring States in the south have been making on this front, say industry observers. But Kerala compares favourably with these States when it comes to the growth rate and has outstripped by a wide margin the 32 per cent growth in exports recorded at the national level during the year.

And the further development of the Kerala IT sector will be of a different order from what has been witnessed so far, given that several big projects are being planned or are in the process of being implemented in various parts of the State. Kerala has so far never seen so many IT projects in the making at one time in both the public and private sectors.

Kochi will also eventually emerge as a major player, though it accounted for only a quarter of the State’s software exports during 2006-07. Units in Kochi, excluding those in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, accounted for only Rs.186 crore of the total exports of Rs.750 crore. And Technopolis, the IT Park located in the zone, was able to garner exports totalling Rs.17.45 crore, said Thomas George Muthoot, managing director of the Muthoot Pappachan group and Technopolis.

The export figures had already gone up to Rs.30.91 crore till October this year as more units had become functional at the park.

While the ground has been cleared for the execution of the Smart City project, Wipro, IBS and TCS are among the companies strengthening their presence in Kochi’s Infopark, even as L&T and the Leela group are substantially adding to its infrastructure in terms of built-up space.

Several other big projects, such as Technocity planned in Thiruvananthapuram, are in the pipeline. Private players such as the Muthoot and Leela groups have come up with their projects on the IT front, apart from Sobha Developers, which is to build a high-tech city in Kochi. That several companies have either ramped up their operations in the State or are setting up dedicated campuses in Infopark and Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram will help in pushing up software exports in the near term. Companies such as IBS, NeST, Case Consultants, Tata Elxsi, TCS and Infosys figure among such companies in Technopark, which is in an expansion mode.

Among the districts, Thiruvananthapuram continues to account for a major chunk of software exports from the State. The units in Thiruvananthapuram accounted for a whopping Rs.557.8 crore of the total exports of Rs.750 crore. And Technopark continues to retain its pride of place as the IT park which has contributed the most, with its units having earned Rs.520 crore by way of exports.

However, in terms of export volumes, Kerala has a long way to go to catch up with its southern neighbours. Karnataka, the State that leads the IT race in the country, notched up exports totalling Rs.48,700 crore during 2006-07, while Tamil Nadu earned export revenues amounting to Rs.20,702 crore. Andhra Pradesh had exports of Rs.18,582 crores compared to Rs.12,521 crores the previous year.

Kerala will look forward to big projects such as Smart City to help it achieve the quantum leap required on the IT front in the long run to place it on an even footing with some of its southern neighbours.

Source:The Hindu

IT, ITES majors invited to invest in Kerala

Rs. 6,000 crore invested in two techno parks

Computer training being provided to 38,000 students

Bangalore: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achutanandan on Sunday invited information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services majors to invest in his State, which had created a world-class infrastructure, an industry-friendly climate and free from labour unrest.

Addressing presspersons before launching the first-ever road show here and meeting with the representatives of the IT majors, Mr. Achutanandan said that the IT captains such as Infosys Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, who had visited the Technopark and Infopark in his State, were impressed by the infrastructure and clean-green atmosphere there.

Mr. Achutanandan, who visited the Infosys Technologies campus at Electronics City, said that the corporate houses were happy with the progressive policies and low operational costs and were eager to shift their expansion programmes to Kerala.

He said that investments to the tune of about Rs. 6,000 crore had been made in these two parks and another Rs. 6,000 crore in Technocity and other areas was in the offing. An apex company had been created and project-specific special purpose vehicles would handle the new IT projects. There will be a uniform spread of IT development in all the districts, he said.

A 507-acre IT township — Technocity — would come up in Thiruvananthapuram and work on the smart city project at Kochi would commence by the end of October. Apart from this, IT parks were coming up in all the districts. He said that the State had the best IT/ITES trained manpower, 75 per cent savings on start-up and operational costs and a strong data backbone.

Kerala IT Secretary K.R. Jyothilal said his State had learnt lessons from Karnataka’s problems in handling the IT industry and that the IT majors would not find any problems in investing there. He said that the State had entered into collaboration with Infosys for starting Finishing Schools for the weaker sections. Shashi Tharoor, former Under Secretary of the United Nations, was also helping the state in establishing more finishing schools, he said.

Mr. Jyothilal said that it was the policy of the Government to introduce computer training and 38,000 students in 2,800 high schools had been getting training. Next year, the number would rise to two lakh.
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