KOCHI: The government will announce a startup and innovation policy to attract more youngsters towards entrepreneurship, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said. The policy will be based on the 27 recommendations made by a three-member committee comprising KSIDC Managing Director Aruna Sundararajan, Federal Bank Managing Director Shyam Srinivasan and Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar appointed by the Planning Board.
Chandy was addressing the Young Entrepreneurs Summit at Karukutty, near Angamaly, on Friday. A meeting of all the Vice-Chancellors in the state will be convened soon to clear the apprehensions about the student entrepreneurship policy announced by the government and to implement the same without flaws, he said.
A ‘Live, Work and Play’ campus, the first of its kind initiative in the country, will be started in the state in association with Startup Village in 5 lakh sqft soon, Chandy said.
“At the time of Emerging Kerala, we set a target of starting 1,000 companies in 10 years. After two years, 777 companies have started in the state, including 276 student enterprises. As of now, 4,897 applications are pending with various incubators in Kerala. Though the state is far ahead in social, healthcare and education sectors, we had not made any substantial gains in terms of economical development. Now, we have to think about developing our infrastructure and increasing per capita income. For this, we have to change our mindset and respond positively to changes,” Oommen Chandy said.
He said not only IT but also sectors as agriculture and food processing, electronics and digital media, tourism, business innovation and green technologies, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing and allied sectors are also the focus areas now.
Industry Minister P K Kunhalikutty launched the `10 cr KSIDC Angel Fund.
The five incubators of KSIDC, Assumption College, Infopark, Kinaloor, Handloom Incubator at Balaramapuram and TKM Institute of Management were also launched at the function. The innovator award instituted as part of the summit was given to Prasanth Menon, Alok Babu and Atul K.