KOCHI: NEW rules have come into effect at the Startup Village at Kalamassery after the Kerala Startup Mission took control of the iconic setup in December have ushered in much-needed financial and work discipline into the ecosystem. But startups say it’s stifling the easy-to-work environment that existed earlier.
Under the new rules, the 24/7 timing has been replaced by 8 am to 8 pm working hours at the Kerala Technology Innovation Zone (K-TIZ as it’s known now and the Startup Village has become a digital incubation hub for telecom startups managed by a firm MobME). K-TIZ is also closed during public holidays. “It has become bit bureaucratic. If companies need to work after 8 pm, we need to get formal permission via mail,” said the head of a startup.
“If we have a project, the extended working hours would help us complete the project before the deadline,” he added.
Jayasankar Prasad C, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission, said the new rules would not stifle the startups incubated at the K TIZ, which under the new scheme will have separate verticals for startups such as biotech, electronic, design studio etc. “We have just put in place some systems. We don’t intend to stop anyone from working at odd hours. They just need to get a formal permission from us,” he said.
Since its inception in April 2012, Startup Vilage has been giving full freedom to firms incubated at the facility. Pranav Kumar Suresh, CEO of Startup Village, said the new changes would bring discipline and work culture among the youngsters. “Under the private initiative, we could easily pump in money to support the infrastructure expenses. Under Kerala Startup Mission, one needs to account for public money.
Earlier, there was only 10,000 sq ft facility, which has been increased to over 30,000 sq ft; so opening it round-the-clock involves huge expense,” he explained. Nasscom’s ‘Startup Warehouse’ at Infopark, Kakkanad, which was launched in January this year, works 24/7, 365 days. Arun Nair, who heads the Nasscom 10,000 startup in Kochi, said the firms at the Nasscom facility would have to move out after six months. This is in contrast to the three-year timeframe given at KTIZ. Some firms which wanted extended hours have moved to Nasscom’s Startup Warehouse from Kalamassery.
Akash Mathew of CIED Technologies said his startup could bring out 10 products due to the easy rules existed earlier. “It would be difficult for campus startups to establish in the zone under the current set-up,” he said.