THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It began as a project to create jobs for 5,000 people, but has grown on to a hub that provides employment to around 50,000 people and created another 2.5 lakh jobs indirectly. The growth of Technopark, the first technology park in the country, has been exponential, leaving even its pioneers in a state of awe.
“Initially, we were even skeptical if we could achieve the target of 5,000 jobs. Kerala did not have much of an investment-friendly image back then and it was great surprise to us that Technopark went on to become such a huge success,” says M Vasudevan, one of the five-member core team of Technopark that also included former founder CEO G Vijayaraghavan, K G Satheesh Kumar, K C Chandrashekaran Nair and K Ramachandran in the early 1990s.
Twenty-five years on, Technopark now houses 330 companies, big and small, like TCS, Infosys Technologies, Oracle India, Accenture Services, HCL Infosystem, Ernst & Young, Allianz Cornhill, UST Global, NeSt and RR Donnelley & Co, among others. And Vasudevan feels a lot of factors combined together to make things work at the pioneering venture.
“The opening up of the economy in 1991 played a major part. Liberalisation brought several international companies who were looking for new places to invest,” he notes. “Also, the economic boom of the 1990s succeeding the global recession helped to establish Technopark as an IT hub as there was a lot of money in the market,” Vasudevan adds.
However, he feels that it wasn’t all just ‘serendipitous happenstance’. “We could also provide what the companies wanted and we planned everything from the scratch. The infrastructure and communication systems were in place and we could project an investment-friendly image to the companies that approached us,” Vasudevan, who left the company in 2014 after serving for 24 years, says.
According to Vijayaraghavan, the continuous support from the changing state governments has also propelled its growth. “The park was initially started for electronics and software. The term information technology itself started appearing in mainstream post-2000,” he points out.
“Technopark has been growing steadily, but the only time I would say we lost out was during the time of V S Achuthanandan-led government between 2006 and 2011, when there was confusion between the government and the Technopark officials,” Vijayaraghavan says.
The contribution it has made to the state and its capital cannot be stressed enough. “At least one member of every family in the district could be related to the Technopark in one way or the other,” says Vasudevan. “The confidence it gave to setting up other hubs in the state and the holistic development it has brought to the capital district is inarguable,” he says.
Vijayaraghavan feels that the only way for Technopark is the way forward. “The park now houses some of the best companies in the world and talents that come with it. Very clearly, the sector is opening up and the employment opportunities and production are only going to rise,” he says. “With companies like IBS Software Services, SunTec Business Solutions and NeST, we have proved we can compete with the rest of the world.” Vijayaraghavan notes.
Meanwhile, Vasudevan says that though Technopark enabled Thiruvananthapuram to the world IT map, it has a long way to go to compete with cities like Bengaluru and Chennai. “More investment has to be made in the research and development sector as well as in research at the university-level. That is the only way to grow,” he says.