PM to lay foundation stone of India's first Digital Science Park in Kerala

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit Kerala on a two-day trip on April 24, will lay the foundation stone for the country's first Digital Science Park, a Rs-1,500-crore project, here on Tuesday, April 25.

The third-generation Science Park (they are located in bustling city centres) will come up close to the Digital University of Kerala at Technopark Phase IV - Technocity, a government release said.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, various ministers of the Left government and Congress's Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor would be attending the event, the release said.

The Digital Science Park project had been conceived as a multidisciplinary cluster-based interactive-innovation zone focused on digital technologies and is expected to be completed in two years, it said.

In the 2022-23 budget, the state government had announced the establishment of a Digital Science Park in an area of 10 lakh square feet in two blocks, the release added. "The park will initially have two buildings with a total area of 2,00,000 square feet. The first one in 1,50,000 square feet will have five floors, housing the Centre of Excellence (CoE) including research labs and digital incubator, while the second building will house the administrative as well as Digital Experience centre."

The Digital Science Park will start its operations from a 10,000 square feet space in Kabani located at Technopark Phase IV within the next couple of months, it added.

Out of the total project outlay of over Rs 1,500 crore, Rs 200 crore has already been allotted by the state government and the remaining amount will be generated from other sources including industry partners, the release said.

Initially, Digital Science Park will facilitate industry and business units as well as technology startups from the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, electronics, smart hardware, sustainable and smart materials. "UK-based semiconductor and software design company ARM has signed an agreement with Digital University Kerala on academic, research and startup-related activities as part of this centre.

"Similarly, the centre for AI will focus on both the hardware and software aspects of responsible AI, where the leading multinational technology company NVIDIA is expected to join as a partner," the release said.