Startup Village, Kerala electricity board tie up

Kochi-based Startup Village has tied up with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to set up a platform –Energy Innovation Zone- that will power new ideas and innovations to reduce the energy woes.

KSEB chairman M Sivasankar and chairman of Startup Village Sanjay Vijaykumar on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here in the presence of chief minister Oommen Chandy and power minister Aryadan Muhammed.

The chief minister said the government would explore possibilities of setting up more innovation zones like this for other sectors too.

Startup Village has already roped in world leaders like BlackBerry (RIM), which set up its first innovation zone in the APAC region. Talks are on with major corporate and government organisations to set up similar zones, which will explore new ideas for solutions and provide better eco-systems for innovations.

The Energy Zone will be housed within a 2,500-square feet pallet rack structure.

“Apart from the real research for energy solutions, the partnership will also give a platform to showcase the ideas of young people and pitch them for funding for further development or scaling up. It will also bring in development from around the world in the sector so that the KSEB can learn from the real-time experiences," said Sivasankar.

The innovation zone will work in line with the National Electrical Mobility Mission 2020. The zone will give practical exposure to entrepreneurs to work together with the KSEB to find out problems faced by the power sector, develop indigenous technology solutions and utilise the domain expertise of KSEB to build home-grown solutions, which can then be deployed in other states and countries, a release stated.