Infosys co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan has said that Kerala is well-positioned to become the first complete e-literate state in the country.
He was addressing a sectoral conference on IT and ITeS as part of the ‘Emerging Kerala’ meet here on Friday. The goal is achievable as the State Government presented a host of big opportunities to the IT investors in the country and abroad to join the next wave of IT revolution, he said.
The IT sector is on a transition mode, from PC to non-PC, from products to cloud technology, from internet to the ‘net of things’ where 60 to 70 billion things are connected.
“It is not about ‘emerging’. But it is about scaling up to make things bigger, better and creating more jobs in the field, apart from pushing innovation. The established companies are into innovation, but we should promote innovation by creating new companies. Kerala has to promote entrepreneurship among the students by bringing a cultural change and giving a stimulating environment,” he said.
Gopalakrishnan lauded the Kochi-based Startup Village as a unique way forward in this regard.
“Today we have around 600 small, medium and large IT firms employing over 80,000 professionals directly and nearly three times that number indirectly. As of today, nearly 1,400 acres of government land have been assigned for infrastructure development for IT and ITeS industry, out of which about 600 acres of land are available for further development,” said Industries and IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty in his inaugural address.
While presenting the main projects for private participation, Principal Secretary for IT P H Kurian said that the task of the government is to create 42 million sq.ft built-up area in a few years’ time, from the present 11 million sq.ft area for the IT companies.