India’s first PPP telecom startup village inaugurated

Monday, April 16, 2012: As part of the process to support new product initiatives and turn them into successful ventures, the country’s first Public Private Partnership telecom business incubator — ‘Startup Village’ — was inaugurated here by Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.
Describing it as a “milestone” in Kerala, Gopalakrishnan, who is also chief mentor of the startup village, said the concept was to create an ecosystem “to increase the confidence and probability of success.”
Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram is one of the most successful ventures of Kerala, but many are not aware of it and there is need to change this perception, he said.
Startup Village, set in KINFRA Park at Kalamassery, will focus on student initiatives from college campuses and would be modelled on technology incubators in the Silicon Valley.
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 Startup Village - Indian Telecom Innovation Hub.
It will create a vibrant ecosystem for start-ups to create breakthrough technologies for the global telecommunications industry.
This would be made possible in association with leading companies in the Telecom Sector by setting up Telecom Innovation Zones that bring the latest technology platforms and products to the startups in the incubator before it is released in the commercial markets, Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO, MobME, said.
Startup village will give a slew of perks from three year service tax holiday to funding opportunities for Tech start-ups.