Thiruvananthapuram: Acres of land wild with bushes and marshes and home to different varieties of snakes till about 25 years ago is now home to nearly 300 IT and ITES companies, including world leaders, employing around 50,000 directly and over one lakh indirectly.
Technopark, India's first technology park, is marching into its 25th year of formation. Technopark was registered an an autonomous society on July 28, 1990. The major chunk of land for setting up Technopark was provided by Kerala University from its Kariyavattom campus.
While being dedicated to the nation in November 1995 by then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, there were around five companies offering less than 500 jobs. In the next two decades, the number of companies increased to nearly 300 in three campuses spread over 300 acres with a workforce to 50,000. Technopark also contributes to the overall development of Kazhakuttam and nearby areas and also has generated over a lakh indirect jobs.
Technocrat K P P Nambiar, who was the then special advisor to the state government on Industries, played the key role in setting up India's first Electronic Technology Parks - Kerala with support from then industry minister K R Gowri.
Mr. Nambiar had also handpicked a section of officials for setting up the park, including the present senior business development managers Mr. M Vasudevan and chief finance officer Mr. K C Chandrasekharan Nair. State planning board member G Vijayaraghavan was the founder chief executive officer. The foundation stone was laid by then Chief Minister Mr. E K Nayanar on March 31, 1991. The K Karunkaran-led Congress government that succeeded also contributed to the immense development of the park in its initial years.
Already many major leaders in the industry like TCS, Infosys Technologies, Oracle, Accenture, HCL, UST Global and IBS are functioning from Technopark and many more big ones like Microsoft are on its way to the park.
