Kerala: Sanjeev Nair, Sushant Kurunthil made CEOs of Technopark, Infopark

Currently, Kerala State IT Mission director Snehil Kumar Singh holds the additional charge as the interim chief executive officer of Kerala IT Parks.

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Putting an end to uncertainties, the state government has appointed separate CEOs for Technopark and Infopark in Kerala. Sanjeev Nair will be the CEO of Technopark while Sushant Kurunthil will be the CEO of Infopark. The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

TNIE recently reported that the appointment of CEOs for both IT parks is delayed due to the negotiations in the selection process. Earlier, there was one CEO for all the IT parks in the state. Later, the government decided to appoint dedicated CEO for the two IT parks to concentrate on the development of the respective IT parks.

Currently, Kerala State IT Mission director Snehil Kumar Singh holds the additional charge as the interim chief executive officer of Kerala IT Parks. The government also appointed a chief marketing officer last month to bring investments to the IT parks.

The government had invited applications for the posts six years after having separate CEOs for two parks was scrapped. A government order on the qualification and criteria for appointment to the posts was issued on June 25. The deadline to apply was July 31.

The former CEO of Kerala IT parks, John M Thomas, was relieved from the post in September, as he cited personal reasons. The government decided to appoint separate CEOs to ensure decentralised development at the IT parks. Earlier, there were apprehensions by the top management of IT parks that a single CEO for all IT parks in the state would undermine development and investment.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had last year informed the assembly that the government was planning to appoint separate CEOs for the three IT parks. He had said that Technopark, Infopark and Cyberpark were brought under the CEO (CEO of IT Parks-Kerala) under special circumstances.

However, the decision on appointing a CEO for Cyberpark in Kozhikode has been dropped. The IT parks in Kerala have had a single CEO since 2016 when the LDF came to power.