India's first PPP telecom startup village inaugurated

The country's first telecom incubator based on the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode was inaugurated in Kochi on Sunday by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to support new product initiatives so that they can be turned into successful businesses.

Set in KINFRA Park at Kalamassery, Startup Village will focus on student initiatives from college campuses and would be modelled on technology incubators in the Silicon Valley.

Terming the establishment of Startup Village as a milestone, Gopalakrishnan said, “Many were yet to take note of transformation happening in Kerala. Many refused to change their perception about the State even after Kerala made a successful model through its Technopark in Thiruvanthapuram. What a startup venture requires is a very conducive atmosphere that will improve confidence and drive in new ideas.”

The model aims to incubate 1,000 product startups over 10 years and launch the search for a billion dollar company from a college campus by the turn of this decade.

Defining the significance and importance of such models, Gopalakrishnan added, “Education, innovation and entrepreneurship will create a favourable situation. Nobody has a ready formula to success. But there are plenty of successful models before us to emulate. These are very significant as they became successful when many others failed. We should be able create such successful models that will inspire hopes. That is the goal of this Startup Village.”

The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Technopark and MobME Wireless have joined hands to set up the country's first telecom business incubator called Startup Village - Indian Telecom Innovation Hub, KINFRA sources said.

It will create a vibrant ecosystem for startups to create breakthrough technologies for the global telecom industry, they said.

It will function in association with leading companies in the telecom sector, through Telecom Innovation Zones, that bring the latest technology platforms and products to startups in the incubator before being released commercially.

The Startup Village campus in the Park will have a 4G network, advanced Telecom labs and also provide all services including Legal, Intellectual Property and Accounting. Besides, students will have facilities such as fully furnished office space and video conference rooms that are required for a start-up company.