Thiruvananthapuram, April  26 2023: Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  has laid the foundation stone for India’s first third-generation Digital Science Park being developed by the Government of Kerala in the state capital, at Technopark Phase IV—Technocity.
Lauding Kerala’s achievements in education, culture and technological advancements, the prime Minister said the development of the Digital Science Park will impart further strength to the Digital India project, which has attracted global attention to the technological prowess of the country.
Kerala is the first state to launch this project just as it pioneered the country’s first technopark and digital university. “This project comes as part of our efforts to make Kerala a higher education and research hub by developing centres of higher learning in science and technology. The Digital Science Park has been conceived as a world class facility that promotes multidisciplinary innovation”,Chief Minister Pinarayi   Vijayan said.
Coming up at a 13.93 acre site as part of the Technopark Phase IV-Technocity and located close to the Kerala University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology, (Digital University of Kerala-DUK), the State Government has already allocated Rs 200 crore for the initial works of the Digital Science Park out of a total Rs 1500 crores allocated for the Science Park
In the initial stage, its focus will be on digital industry, digital applications, digital entrepreneurship and deep tech domains. The project has already entered into collaborations with universities of Manchester, oxford and Edinburgh. Activities of the higher research and education institutions and technology-based industries in the state will be also linked to the Digital Science Park.
The Digital Science Park project has been conceived as a multi disciplinary cluster-based interactive – innovation zone focused on digital technologies. The project is to be completed in two years.
The Park will develop and leverage on network overlay of communications built over a triple helix involving Universities, industry and government. Initially, Digital Science Park will facilitate industry and business units as well as technology startups from the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, electronics, smart hardware, sustainable and smart materials.
The park will initially have two buildings with a total area of 2,00,000 sq.ft. The first, on a space of 1.5 lakh square feet, will have five floors, housing Centre of Excellences including research labs and digital incubator, while the second building will house administrative as well as Digital Experience centre.
The Digital Science Park will start its operations from the 10,000 sq.ft space in Kabani located at Technopark Phase IV within next couple of months.