KOCHI: Kerala got the country’s first Construction Innovation Hub (CIH) which seeks to promote affordable and sustainable building facilities to foster collaboration, innovation and knowledge-sharing among stakeholders.
Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) will be responsible for the CIH’s overall programme management, including the identification and recruitment of nascent companies as well as providing them with housing-related technical mentorship and connections, besides programme design and facilitation. Set up in association with Habitat for Humanity India (HFHI), an American non-profit organisation that builds homes and provides housing-related services to low-income families, CIH will be based in Kochi, where KSUM’s headquarters lie.
During the launch ceremony at the Sheltertech Summit India in Chennai on Thursday, KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika said CIH will help consolidate worldwide knowledge pertinent to construction. “This will ensure we gain in aspects like cost, quality and timeliness while building infrastructure,” he said, highlighting their role in accelerating the speed of development in Southeast Asian economies.
KSUM and the 1976-founded HFHI, based at Americus in Georgia, US, and functioning in 70 countries, will focus on shelter technology while going ahead with CIH. The cooperation will augment KSUM’s upcoming technological assignments, Ambika said. CIH, which will be accessible to startups across India and is envisaged to function virtually initially, gives KSUM a decisive role in setting up a secretariat at the nodal agency to handle its administrative tasks and identify a full-time point-to-contact person for the hub.
The facility will enable KSUM to realise startup space at KTIZ (Kerala Technology Innovation Zone) in Kochi, promote events and reach out to the target audience. It will help provide digital platform for KSUM’s innovation lab, liaise with different government departments to identify pilot projects related to low-income housing as well as construction skilling, its finance and other connects to startups/scaleups as needed.
KSUM will have the power to call for application of startups/students/MSMEs and evaluate their initial screening. It can hold road shows and reverse pitch sessions for the participants to get best startups nationally. With CIH’s launch, KSUM is set to form an advisory council comprising pertinent stakeholders, with early-stage innovators reaching out to college students and conducting knowledge sessions to promote shelter in the first year.
