KOCHI: “Startups in India need to work more in order to meet international standards,” said the delegates who arrived for the two-day National Deeptech Startup Conclave, Hardtech '19 here at Kinfra Hi-Tech Park, Kalamassery. The general opinion was that startups here need to polish themselves by taking challenges head-on and make the most of the efforts by the government to provide them with a smooth growth profile.
According to the speakers at the conclave, such tenacity is essential in the present era that’s seeing great penetration of digital services into the social and economic activities in the country. “The situation warrants India to adopt and adapt technologies faster than any other country,” opined experts from the industry on the opening day of the event, organised by Maker Village, India’s largest electronic hardware incubator.
According to Aruna Sundararajan, Central Telecom secretary, the administration plays a critical role in building a favourable startup milieu in the country. “Maintaining global yardsticks will be a key challenge startups face in the future. They won’t achieve the desired results without the respective governments creating ideal ecosystems,” she said.
She called for a system that would ensure integrated implementation of factors like talent, market, entrepreneurship, industry relations and investment possibilities. “Maker Village is doing a laudable service in this area,” she added. She also launched an automated ‘Neera’ tapping machine, developed by NAVA Design and Innovation Pvt Ltd., supported by Maker Village. M Sivasankar, state secretary of IT department, said the hardware sector needs to overcome its problems regarding materials and design.
“Maker Village, in this respect, can utilise the prevailing backbone projects in the sector like Kerala Fibre Optic Network, space tech startup project by ISRO and VSSC, and Intel laptop manufacturing project,” he added.Madhavan Nambiar, chairman of Maker Village, said funding is the ‘oxygen’ that drives startups. “It is an area which requires urgent attention and work,” he noted.
Belgium for ties with Kerala startups
Kochi: Mark Van de Vreken, Belgium Consul General to South India, at an international conference held here in the city, said Belgium is looking forward to fostering relations with India in the hardware sector by collaborating more with startups, particularly in Kerala.
The move for strong tie-ups with startups in and around Kochi comes amidst the West European nation’s efforts to come up with more number of private high-growth tech companies called tech unicorns. Addressing a conclave at Hardtech ’19, the Chennai-based diplomat recalled that earlier this year, Belgium got its first tech unicorn when 2008 founded software firm Collibra joined the prestigious league of data governance technology startups by raising 100 million US dollars.