Thiruvananthapuram, November 4 2020: Kerala has created an Accelerator for Electronics Technologies (ACE), facility at the Technopark campus in the city. Inaugurated to days ago by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan,the facility that will boost the state’s startups striving to scale up as sustainable enterprises.
ACE is a joint initiative of Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), the premier research and development institution of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India. The accelerator will be complementary to the KSUM-supported incubator in electronics technologies established in Kochi with the assistance of the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT.
Mandated to facilitate software infrastructure that support the research and development of high-end electronic systems, tools and services, the 50,000 sq-ft facility will provide 1,000 direct employment opportunities this month.
Restrictions of various kinds to check the spread of the coronavirus has not impeded the prospects of Kerala’s growth in the IT sector, Mr Vijayan said, citing the government-run Technopark in the state capital as an example. There is a large demand for KSUM’s scale-up space in Technopark, with 20 startups having already been allotted space recently.The plug-and-play space will be offered at subsidized rates. The Future Technology Lab will catalyze the accelerator programme.
CDAC Executive Director Magesh E sad the autonomous scientific body was keen to partner with any rising startup in Kerala to take the entrepreneurs to the next level by guiding them till hitting the market with the product.
K Mohammed Y Safirulla, Secretary, IT & Electronics, Government of Kerala, said in his welcome speech that Kerala currently had 3,000 startups and a space of 4 lakh square feet for them. The state has 40 incubators, 226 mini incubators, one future technology lab and MIT super fablab each, and 22 fablabs. Kerala’s investment in IT stands at Rs 2,000 crore in the past five years, he revealed.