Startup Village aims to be the largest telecom incubator

Startup Village, a technology incubator promoted by Department of Science and Technology and Technopark Trivandrum, has set up an ambitious target to be the world’s largest telecom incubator. For this the State of Kerala will soon announce a Student Entrepreneurship Policy.

The Student Entrepreneurship Policy will be finalised within 30 days, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the recently concluded emerging Kerala global investors' . Among several things the policy provides 20 per cent attendance and 4 per cent grace marks to students engaged in entrepreneurship during their study.

“We will further strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem to accelerate this transformation by providing infrastructure in the form of a TIZ (Technology Innovation Zone) in about 10 acres of land in Kochi with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore,” said Chandy.

Startup Village received over 250 applications in the last five months since its inauguration by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. It is now trending to cross 900-1,200 applications in the next 9-12 months showing the underlying surge for entrepreneurship in Kerala college campuses, said an official press release.

Along with these the state government is also putting in place infrastructure with a campus spread out on a 100,000 square feet area. Of this the first 25,000 sq.ft will be ready by may 12, 2013 and the remaining 75,000 sq.ft by January 12, 2014.

TIZ is proposed to host more initiatives like the Startup Village on a PPP mode in other technology areas and verticals in Telecom, Data Analytics, Animation and Gaming, VLSI, Nanotechnology and Biotechnology. The zone will provide space at a low cost to the startup companies, which would have to pay only the operational cost. Government will manage the infrastructure and the innovator units will have 100 per cent operational freedom to pursue their novel ideas and graduate into independent businesses. adds that, the transition of the business to the common TPA will be gradual.