Friday, October 28 2005 15:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Reiterating its commitment to the Information Technology industry, the Kerala State IT Mission today (Oct 28, 2005) announced that Kerala will become a complete Knowledge society by 2010 leveraging the 100% literacy rate, thus enabling the state to emerge as the largest IT consumer market in the country.

'The full potential of Kerala will unfold in the next five years. Our business is not just bringing investment to Kerala but enabling the community as well. Our vision is to make the state a knowledge society where information of a global scale is available to every citizen and he/she is capable of using that information for improvisation of Quality of Life and self-advancement", said Hon'ble Chief Minister, Government of Kerala, Shri Oommen Chandy.

About the Akshaya Project, which began in Malapuram district in 2003, today is moving into seven new districts and will have 1310 e-kendras. The entire Kerala state of 14 districts will be covered with 3000 Akshaya e-kendra's by 2006.

'The objective of Akshaya project was to encourage entrepreneurship in the new economy through public-private partnership and bridge the digital divide. Malapuram has been a learning curve for the IT mission. We are encouraged by the results and the participation of people in this district. We are now ready to replicate this model of success across all 14 districts of Kerala. Our mission is to have one person in every household in Kerala e-literate by 2007", said, Mr. P.H. Kurien, IAS, Secretary IT and Investment Promotions, Department of IT Government of Kerala.

Education, at the grassroots level, the Government of Kerala is imparting compulsory IT education to high school students. "Presently, Kerala is the only state in the country where IT Subject is compulsory in the 10th standard board examinations", continued Shri Oommen Chandy.

Today there are 150 IT companies in the state employing 15,000 people, which is expected to grow to 50,000 by 2008. In the following year 20,000 engineers will pass out from universities in Kerala compared to 7000 in 2001.

"With the growth in the number of engineers available, companies will have a larger talent pool to access. We believe that with the commitment of the government to bring path breaking IT polices to provide a conductive environment, companies will be eager to set up their operations in Kerala. Kerala already houses the top IT firms such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Their success in the state will act as a catalyst to attract new companies to take advantage of the talent available", stated Mr. P.H. Kurien.

Coming to Infrastructure, which is crucial for success of IT in Kerala. The government will make available 1000 acres for development of IT parks and habitat centers in the next three years. Presently Kerala houses four IT Parks of which two are Government initiatives namely, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark, Kochi. The other two IT Parks are private-public initiatives - L&T 5 acre 'infocity' and the Leela IT Park.

The Technopark is the 1st CMML 4 IT Park with 15 lakh sq ft/242 acres. 80 companies employ 10,000 people. The major firms at this IT park include McKinsey, Tata Elxsi, Allianz & E&Y. It also houses Software Development Centers of Infosys, TCS, US Technologies, Nest, SunTech and IBS. Here, TCS has the largest training centre world wide. The Technopark also has a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status.