InfoPark - Updates & Discussions

[georgescifo]

Off all the buildings in the Infopark, Vismaya is the worst one as it has really bad facilities. It usually takes a long time to get anything repaired inside the building and since I am working in this building, I have seen it many times. The toilet that is close to our office has been damaged badly and it has been around 10 months, but no actions are taken to repair them. A lot of bathroom accessories gets stolen on a regular interval and no actions have been taken to prevent it or replace the stolen items. The air condition system is the worst in this building as individual companies do no have the right to control the intensity of the ac. Most of the time it is high cold and when we ask to slow down the ac, the authorities turns of the complete ac making it difficult to work.

[mohammedirshad06]

Chennai based software and media services company, AccelTransmatic, a part of Rs 500 crore Accel group, has opened its new software development centre in the L&T SEZ at Infopark, Kochi. The new development centre will augment its existing facility at The Technopark, Thiruvanathapuram.

Creating the new facility is part of Accel's initiative to expand foot print geographically; to attract talent and to create state-of-the-art facilities and good work environment for its employees and quality offerings to clients.

The Software division of AccelTransmatic, known as Ushus Technologies , was founded in 2000 in Thiruvanathapuram. In the last few years it has accelerated growth with new client acquisitions in USA. It provides services to product companies and works on leading edge technologies in Imaging, Multimedia and Networking with clients in Europe, USA, Japan and Israel.

Acceltransmatic chairman, Mr N R Panicker said, "Opening the new software development centre in Kochi is an important milestone for the Accel Group. We have set ourselves ambitious targets to grow the technology services in the coming years and to grow our employee strength multifold in Kerala. This is a small step in that direction. Along with our growth initiatives in our animation division, based out of Film and Video Park in Thiruvanathpuram, and other group entities such as Accel Frontline and Accel IT Academy, the Accel Group is poised to play a leadership role in the IT ecosystem of Kerala in the coming years."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/9124784.cms

[mohammedirshad06]

Andrine Mendez sports a thick beard and a moustache, looking every bit the entrepreneur he is. He would have loved to be a little more chilled out, just like every other 24-year-old, but this young man could not afford to do so.

For, he manages a couple of companies in Kochi.

Two years ago, he was, like many others in his age group, a B. Tech graduate who pursued an MBA. But his desire to do something different was so intense that Andrine took a plunge into a different career path.

He entered the entertainment industry and became a programme producer-cum-VJ in India Vision’s entertainment channel, Yes.

But Andrine yearned for more and wanted to try a mix of marketing and media. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.

In January 2011, he launched the first web TV in India, Indiavibes. In this, five to eight minutes long programmes are packaged for the Internet community comprising bloggers, photographers, start-up companies and more. Andrine has plans to invite content from users, which can be videographed and uploaded by them.

Andrine’s entrepreneurial ambitions, however, did not end there. Three months ago, Andrine donned another hat — as the CEO of an initiative called Salt Mango Tree. It might sound like a strange name but every word has a world of meaning according to him.

“Salt refers to the basics of what we do — campaigning. Tree is the networking and mango is the sweetness with which we do things. In two words, it is integrated marketing,” says Andrine. Everything from PR and digital to social media comes under integrated marketing.

Salt Mango Tree has become a familiar term with Malayalis after Mohanlal announced it as the translation of uppumaavu in a movie. So Andrine’s team makes sure they bring a food connection in all their dealings. The project proposals are called cookbooks. And each cookbook comes with a menu, ingredients, a recipe and a write-up about the kitchen (the company). Latest in line is an À la carte, which they’d reserve exclusively for educational institutions, hospitals and the like.

Coming August, Salt Mango Tree is organising a charity bowl in Kochi — a gaming session of pool, dart and bowling — the proceeds of which will go to Don Bosco Sneha Bhavan, a children’s home in Palluruthy.

As for Andrine, he hopes to study the case studies of famous brands which will help him gain national prominence.

He continues to tread on the less-taken path that he has chosen for himself.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tablo...gy-succeed-877

[mohammedirshad06]

The Group of Technology Companies (G-Tec), a 175-member organisation of IT & ITeS companies in Techno Park and Info Park, has proposed that the state government start an 'Invest in Kerala Mission', on the lines of 'Invest in Sweden' and 'Invest in Scotland' campaigns to attract IT-sector investments into the state. In an interview with George Joseph in Kochi, G-Tec chief executive officer Binu Sankar says the prosopsals are expected to be included in the new IT investment policy. Excerpts:

1. Are you hopeful of making Kerala the most attractive IT destination in India?

Surely, Kerala has the natural, social and educational advantages to become the most sought-out IT destination of India. Talented young people are abundant in Kerala. Along the length and breadth of the state basic infrastructure facilities like roads, power etc are available. If the government can offer one of the basic facilites at lower cost, the state will be the obvious choice of big IT companies.

2. How do you see Kerala's progress compared with other south Indian states in IT sector?

Kerala had started the first IT park in India in the late 1980s, but it could not maintian that level of initiative in the next two decades. Even now the state' s IT sector is providing direct employment to just 40,000 people. Techno Park Thiruvananthapuram is having 30,000 employees and another 10,000 in Info Park Kochi. But just one campus of a major IT company in Bangalore is having strength of 20,000-25,0000. So Kerala is lagging far behind, though it was the pioneer in this sector.

Also, top IT companies like TCS and Infosys have a nominal presence in Kerala. Techno Park and Info Park account for 90 per cent of Kerala's IT business. In 2009-10, the total business trunover of the sector in Kerala was Rs 2,412 crore which was just 1 per cent of the total all-India business. This year 16-18 per cent growth is expected. So it is alarming that Kerala's postion is rather insignificant compared to the growth of other states. Apart from that, 70 per cent of the companies are SMEs which employ 15 employees each on an average. This is pathetic when we compare the increasing number of highly educated manpower in the state.

3. What are the major handicaps that hinder growth in Kerala?

The huge cost escalation on the operations side in recent years is a major concern and we have discussed the issue with the new state government. Five years ago, the major advantage of Kerala was the lower operational costs, which was 50 per cent lower than other major south Indian locations. The lower land prices and rent were the major attaction. But during last couple of years, this had changed tremendoulsy and now Kerala is on a par with other states on the operational cost. The government should address this issue in its IT policy.

4. What are your expecations from the next phase of development in Kerala in the light of coming up of Techno city and other local IT parks?

Kerala is going through a big leap as major companies are now eyeing the state. Oracle has set up a shop in Thiruvananthapuram and compnies like TCS and Infosys are planning big for Kerala. Smart City will also give a big boost to the state.

5. What is new on the marketing front and identifying fresh markets?

This May, a G-Tec delegation visited Denmark and Sweden and a sizeable business opportunity had been identified in these countries. Sectors like mobile application, clinical data management, engineering services, embedded systems and renewable energy sources had been identified as potential areas and there would be counter visits from these nations. Business to the tune of Rs 100 crore can be evolved. Experion Global, a Technopark based company, has already signed a deal with Peak Telecom of Denmark. We are also looking at African and ASEAN markets very seriously and invited delegations from there. Other potential markets identified are Finland, Island and Germany.

6. What are G-Tec's other sugestions to the government?

Under the IT Mission Kerala, there should be resident representatives in the US, EU and in West Asia for constant interaction with overseas companies. The success stories from Kerala should be marketed in these countries and promotional initiatives should be strengthened like it happened in God's Own Country campaign in tourism sector. Industry representation should be ensured in the Programme Implementation Board (PIB) of Technopark and Infopark. The government should nurture an ecosystem conducive to industrial and IT development of the state.

http://www.business-standard.com/ind...-g-tec/442223/

[mohammedirshad06]

Accel North America (ANA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Accel Transmatic today announced that it opened a new engineering office at Infopark, Kochi. Technologies division (Ushustech) of the company already has an engineering center at Technopark, Thiruvanathapuram.

Aju Kuriakose, VP Business Develoment says, "The new facility is being setup to meet and cater the growing need of our customers and partners across the various geographies including USA, Japan, Israel, Singapore & Spain. By having the engineering office in kochi we hope to attract more local talent and build a good work environment for our employees and thereby improving on the quality offerings to clients."

AccelTransmatic, a part of 100 million dollar core Accel group based our of Chennai, India and offers technology services to to product companies in Automotive, Consumer Electronics & Networking.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8644019.htm

[Malayaali]

IT Growth on a slow track

The news report in Manorama states that the growth of IT in Kerala is at a rate of 3% last year which is far from desired and the total exports cannot even be compared to other States of the south.

Kerala's IT exports in 2010-11

Total : Rs 2966 Crore

Infopark : Rs 300 Crore
Infopark SEZ : Rs 533 Crore
CSEZ : Rs 200 Crore

Total Share of IT firms in Kochi minus STPI companies: Rs 1033 Crore - 35%

[Malayaali]

EXL Service to expand in Kochi

EXL Services Holding which Acquired OPI will expand their current facility in Kochi.

We are looking at expanding more facilities and growing our business. The momentum is good. We have a new facility in Noida in special economic zone (SEZ). We did the first phase in the beginning of the year which was about 1,100 seats. The second phase is commissioned right now which is going to be another 1,200 seats in Noida. We are expanding in new areas such as Bangalore and Kochi also. We are setting up a second site in Philippines, which will be another 500 seats. There is a fair amount of physical infrastructure expansion and business expansion. The total investment in the expansion is close to $25 million, out of which India expansion will attract a total of $15-17 million.
We are also setting up a recruitment and training facility in Noida. We will have a specialised facility in which we will hire and train internally. We will also be recruiting new trainers from different universities to train these employees. On a whole, we are hiring 6,000 people by December. At present our headcount is 17,000 across the globe, 15000 being in India.

Financial Express

[agnath.]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

IT Growth on a slow track

The news report in Manorama states that the growth of IT in Kerala is at a rate of 3% last year which is far from desired and the total exports cannot even be compared to other States of the south.

Infopark : Rs 300 Crore
Infopark SEZ : Rs 533 Crore
CSEZ : Rs 200 Crore

CSEZ data in this seems to be wrong comparing with whats quoted in http://www.sezindia.nic.in/writeread...ts_31.3.11.pdf CSEZ IT exports is reported here as 244 Cr.

If thats 244 Cr : Growth for Kochi IT exports would be (300+533+244)/(280+334+198) = growth of 32.6 %
If thats 200 Cr : Growth for Kochi IT exports would be (300+533+200)/(280+334+198) = growth of 27.2 %

The last years numbers I am quoting from the RTI responses that Dileep had filed.

[Malayaali]

Growth of 30% approx is not bad at all!

[agnath.]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Growth of 30% approx is not bad at all!

30% growth is good in my opinion too, but have some other doubt about these numbers... IT summit in Kochi in 2010 Dec , TCS CFO said TCS revenues are about 500 Cr from Kochi center(http://www.hindu.com/2010/12/15/stories/2010121561010300.htm), If my understanding is right Wipro and CTS too have similar number of employee strength like TCS in kochi( Correct me if I am wrong in this).. Indian IT service companies mostly have revenues propotional to employee count. So even this 833 Cr from Infopark (533+300) from ALL companies put together, I somehow feel is very low if the above statement by TCS CFO is right .... I feel it should have been much more.

[Kochi Resident]

Yes. It is not bad. In cities like Vizag the exports were 800 crores in 2009-10 and 1040 crores in 2010-11. There is no substantial increase anywhere in other small towns.

Also we are far better compared to state of Gujarat where IT exports have come down. The total IT exports in Kochi is almost equal to the whole of Gujarat. They were 1226 crore in 2009-10 and 1073 crore in 2010-11. In Kochi alone the exports is 1033 crores. See below for Vizag from a site

He said representatives of IT companies visit Vizag every week to enquire about the facilities that the city offers. “If they start their activities through incubation centres they would get to know the city better and later would come forward to set up their own facility,” he said.
At present, more than hundred small and medium IT companies operate from the city and another 20 to 30 are expected to commence operations during this fiscal. In 2009-10, software exports from Vizag stood at about Rs 800 crore. This grew over 30 per cent in 2010-11. He said the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation had called for tenders for the proposed IT tower at Madurawada, where the SEZ is located.
According to B Murali, president of Visakha Information Technology Association, IT and ITeS industy has not shown impressive growth in this area. The industry needs plug-and-play facilities to attract more players, he said.

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Growth of 30% approx is not bad at all!

[psanthosh]

is this what you were talking... MS were searching for location in t2 citities....

Microsoft opens R&D facility in Bangalore

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle2296465.ece

Originally Posted by rajkrish

open the case. It's most probably Accenture.

[mohammedirshad06]

Imagine a pretty young lass walking carelessly along a deserted road.

A gang of goons hover around. She senses danger and presses a big button on her smartphone.

The thugs almost get at her — till like in the movies, two or three heroes come to her rescue. What the young woman did, is use her ‘Sentinel’.

While smartphones and mobile accessories are sneered at by the techno phobic, the same gadgets could play the role of your saviours.

That’s what 24-year-old Christin Immanuel George and his team found out when they set out on the path of making mobile applications. The young team launched this mission last December, when their start-up company — MindHelix Technologies — was opened in Kochi. Sentinel, their latest project that works on GPS, was released nearly a month ago.

“It is an application to help improve the security of women and can be installed on a smart phone. When the application is on and you press the big button, an alert goes to three phone numbers and email addresses you choose.

So when you are in trouble, your dear ones can come to your rescue at once. If the miscreants snatch your phone and switch it off, the application will still send an alert to the same people,” explains Christin, founder and CEO of MindHelix.

Three members of Christin’s core team — the fourth being himself — were final year engineering students at the time the company started its operations.

Thomas Antony, Christin’s cousin, took two of his classmates — Kallidil Kalidasan and Nandakumar K.S. — and joined Christin. “One day when we met over coffee, we came up with the idea of a tuk-tuk meter,” says Christin.

Auto rickshaw drivers cheating passengers by charging high fares have been an oft-heard complaint. To resolve the problem, the youngsters developed an application that would record the exact fare of travel from one place to another, depending on the location.

The team has won awards and honours for their ‘tuk tuk meter’ at the Indian Android Developer Contest, initiated by Webonise Lab, Pune and the mBillionth Award South Asia 2011.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tablo...-stay-safe-708

[mohammedirshad06]

Avial Band celebrating at Infopark Cognizant.

[mohammedirshad06]

സൈബര്* പോലീസിന് ആവശ്യമായ സ്റ്റാഫും മറ്റ് സൗകര്യങ്ങളും അനുവദിക്കുന്നതിന് നടപടികള്* സ്വീകരിക്കുമെന്ന് മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി ഉമ്മന്*ചാണ്ടി പറഞ്ഞു. സൈബര്* കുറ്റങ്ങള്* വര്*ധിച്ചുവരികയാണ്.

ഹില്*പാലസ് എ.ആര്*. ക്യാമ്പ് അങ്കണത്തില്* സായുധ പോലീസ് അഡ്മിനിസ്*ട്രേറ്റീവ് ബ്ലോക്കിന്റെ നിര്*മാണോദ്ഘാടനം നിര്*വഹിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹം.

കേരളത്തിന്റെ തന്നെ ഐ.ടി. തലസ്ഥാനമായി മാറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന കാക്കനാട് ഇന്*ഫോ പാര്*ക്കില്* പുതിയ പോലീസ് സ്റ്റേഷന്* അനുവദിച്ചതായി മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി പറഞ്ഞു.

http://www.mathrubhumi.com/ernakulam...%E0%B4%B1.html

Infopark, which is fastly emerging as top IT Destination, will soon get a dedicated Police station.

[suniljohny]

http://www.infoparkdaily.com/

[Kochi Resident]

Has the 2nd phase construction activities started? If not any idea when it is commencing?

[agnath.]

2nd phase construction activities , I don't think any of it has started. It was all for positive media coverages before elections. Along with Phase II announcement there was annoincement on BPO building construction start, has anything moved forward in that ? hasn't heard anything about it since foundation stone laying ....

[agnath.]

Brigade Enterprises in their annual report in May 04th 2011, said

Special Economic Zones—The construction work at the Special Economic Zone at Kochi would commence shortly. source:
http://www.moneycontrol.com/annual-r...rs-report/BE08

But I don't think theres any construction activity in Infopark other than TCS campus construction , may be somebody working in Infopark could update the forum.

[mohammedirshad06]

Cordiant's ITPC Complex in Chennai


Cordiant Technologies is all set to set up an Information Technology Research Park at Thiruvaniyur, 15 km east of Kochi. The company has already acquired 7.5 acres of land and cosntruction is expected to commence soon.

Integral to the Cordiant IT Research Park would be Cordiant Innovation Center (incubation space) for young entrepreneurs and also turnkey lab space for industry peers.

Cordiant IT Research Park would also work closely with select educational institutions in the region to improve the overall industry-relevance of their study programs.
The development of the research park would take place in phases, with the first phase expected to be completed in 2012.

A part of the park would be industry-specific finishing schools set up in partnership with other companies and industry associations.

“In spite of an early start, the state of Kerala has lagged behind its southern neighbours in Information Technology investments. However, there are several factors which make the state a far better investment location for IT," said Dennis Paul, president and CEO, Cordiant Technologies.