The Technopark IT hub here will throw up another 30,000 jobs soon, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Monday, inaugurating the Kerala regional council of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).
An additional one million square feet will be added to the built-up space here with the opening of the SEZ campus of TCS and the software development parks of Infosys and UST Global in the next 18 months, he said. At present, Technopark employs 42,500 professionals, he said.
The trend of protectionism adopted by governments in the West should be viewed as a challenge by IT-ITES companies in the state and should spur competitiveness, Chandy said.
According to the Chief Minister, outsourcing in India will continue to remain a ‘’viable activity’’ for a long time owing to the favourable factors such as young manpower and literacy. Industries and IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty said that the government was laying considerable focus on infrastructure development in the IT sector. Kerala’s share of one billion US dollars in the national-level IT exports may not seem much, but the state still holds the fifth position in the country in this sector.
The State Government was also laying a lot of stress on skill development, he said.
Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan said a total of 42 million square feet built-up area will be added to the various IT parks across the state in the coming years. At present, the total area is 11 million square feet.
NASSCOM president Som Mittal delivered the keynote address at Monday’s function. NASSCOM Kerala regional council, which is chaired by IBS Software service executive chairman V K Mathews, is the fifth in the country after Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
NASSCOM regional council members include Higher Education Additional Chief Secretary K M Abraham, IT Principal Secretary P H Kurian, Technopark CEO K G Girish Babu and Infosys Technologies centre head Sunil Jose, SmartCity CEO Gigo Joseph and TCS centre head K Kesavaswamy.