Technopark, Trivandrum

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Technopark
Type Government owned
Industry Information Technology Business Park
Genre Infrastructure Service Provider
Founded July 1990
Headquarters Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Number of locations Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam
Area served 7.1 Million sq.ft. (Including Phase III)
Key people K G Girish Babu, CEO
M. Vasudevan, Senior Manager
Owner(s) Government of Kerala
Employees 90,000
Parent Government Of Kerala
Website www.technopark.org
Aerial view of Technopark Phase I campus

Technopark is a technology park in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, India. It is the largest information technology park in India in terms of built up area.[1] The park is dedicated to IT ventures. Launched in 1990, Technopark as of 2012 has 4 million square feet of built-up area, and is home to over 285 companies, employing nearly 40,000 professionals.[2] Technopark is currently on an expansion mode by adding another 37 hectares as part of Phase III expansion and 450 acres (1.8 km2) as Technocity—an integrated IT township near Pallippuram. The policy of economic liberalisation initiated by the government of India in 1991 and the rapid growth of the global software industry during the 1990s substantially contributed to its growth. During the global financial crisis of 2007–2010, the park saw a period of reduced growth in 2009-10, where the exports recorded was only 2.8% more than the previous year.[3][4] As of late 2010, Technopark accounts for about 70% of IT exports from Kerala.[3][4][5]

The units in Technopark include domestic firms, joint ventures and subsidiaries of foreign companies engaged in a wide variety of activities, which include embedded software development, smart card technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP), process control software design, engineering and computer-aided design software development, IT Enabled Services (ITES), process re-engineering, animation and e-business. Technopark is owned and administered by the Government of Kerala and is headed by a chief executive officer. In addition to this, it has a Governing Council and a Program Implementation Board, both of which include top officials of the government.[6] Administrative offices, including that of the CEO, are housed in the Park Centre building. Technopark also hosts a Technology Business Incubation Cell and Software Competency Centre, situated in the Park Centre.

History and mission

In July 1990, the Government of Kerala conceptualised Technopark as a facility to foster the development of high-technology industries in the state. Technopark was set up under the auspices of Electronics Technology Park, Kerala—an autonomous body under the Department of Information Technology of the government of Kerala.

Technopark's aim was to create infrastructure and provide support required for the development of high-technology companies. Its stated mission is to "Provide, Viably, Superior Environment and Services with Assured Quality of Service to Make Technology Businesses Intrinsically Competitive And Successful, and Promote Regional Development through Synergistic Linkages Between Industry, Government and Academia, based on Continuous Improvement and Innovation".[7]

The foundation stone for the first building in Technopark was laid on 31 July 1991 by the then Kerala Chief Minister, K. Karunakaran. Noted industrialist K.P.P. Nambiar was Technopark's first chairman. Technopark was formally dedicated to the nation by the then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao in November 1995.[8]

Since then, Technopark has been growing steadily both in size and employee strength. Park Centre, Pamba and Periyar were the only buildings in the beginning. Since then, Technopark has periodically added new buildings such as Nila, Gayathri and Bhavani. With the inauguration of the 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m2). (85,000 sq m.) Thejaswini on 22 February 2007, Technopark became the largest IT Park in India.[1] After that Leela Group has built a Facility (Leela Infopark), which hosts MNCs like Allianz, Oracle Corporation, RM Education.

Workforce

As of now, Technopark has 286 companies in IT and ITES sector with around 40,000 employed in various sectors.[9] Technopark houses major IT companies like Oracle Corporation, Accenture,[10] Infosys, TCS, ITC Infotech, CapGemini, along with Visual Graphics India Limited, Accel Frontline Ltd, Ernst & Young Global Shared Services Center, Allianz, RR Donnelley, UST Global, Tata Elxsi, IBS Software Services, NeST Software, SunTec Business Solutions to name a few.

Institutions

Technopark hosts two prominent educational and research institutes. The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management–Kerala (IIITM–K) is a premier institution of Higher Education and Research and Development in applied Information Technology and Management. In addition to providing post graduate courses in Information Technology, IIITM–K is a leader in Educational Networking and in setting up Web Portals which benefit the community.[11] Portals for Computational chemistry and agricultural information dissemination are among its focus areas.[12] IIITM–K is located at present in Park Centre.

The Asian School of Business (ASB) one of the prominent Business School in Kerala used to work out of Technopark offering its flagship post graduate management programme, before moving to its own 16 Acre LEED Certified campus in 2011.[13] The Asian School of Business is managed by a Board of Governors which includes stalwarts of the Indian IT industry like Tata Consultancy Services CEO S. Ramadorai and Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan.[14]

Infrastructure

Technopark aims to provide all the infrastructure and support facilities needed for IT/ITES and electronics companies to function. In addition to built-up office space, it also provides all utilities as well as the connectivity. This is done either directly or through private partners. In addition, Technopark provides business incubation facilities for start-up firms as well as some social infrastructure for the personnel working in the park.

Buildings

Interior of Bhavani building

There are currently about a dozen buildings inside the Technopark campus intended for software development. Seven of the buildings in Technopark are named after rivers in Kerala—the Pamba, the Periyar, the Nila, the Chandragiri, the Gayathri, Bhavani and the Thejaswini. The seventh building is named Thejaswini and was commissioned in February 2007, with over 600,000 sq ft (56,000 m2). (60,000 sq m.) of carpet area. There are also independent buildings of private enterprises inside the Phase I campus named Amstor house, Padmanabham and M-squared. These buildings aggregate to a total of about 3,500,000 sq ft (330,000 m2). (350,000 sq m.) of space, either complete or under construction.

Nila building
Amstor building
Bhavani building
Key parameters of buildings in Technopark[15]
Name Number of floors Total area
(in thousand sq ft)		 Number of elevators Generator backup
Pamba 4 60 None 50%
Periyar 4 60 None 50%
Chandragiri 4 57 2 100%
Gayathri 3 129 4 100%
Nila 7 400 6 50%
Amstor 5 350 4 100%
Bhavani 6 480[16] 6 100%
Thejaswini 12 850[17] 8 100%
M-Squared Building 4 45[18] 1 100%
TCS Peepul Park 4 to 5 325[19] N/A 100%
Tata Elxsi Neyyar 4 100 2 100%
IBS Campus 4 to 10 450[20] 2 100%
Leela Info Park 14 460[21] 6 100%
N/A indicates no information available
10 sq ft.=~1 m².
Thejaswini building

Other facilities in the campus include:

  • Technopark Club: Includes a gym, swimming pool, restaurant and sporting facilities.
  • Techno-mall
  • Technopark guesthouse.
  • Other privately constructed buildings.

Utilities and support facilities

Technopark offers electricity through a 110 KV, 30 MVA dedicated internal power distribution system with built-in redundancies at all levels.[citation needed] Technopark is a licensee for distribution of power in the campus. Water supply is distributed by Technopark through a dedicated distribution system.

Technopark has support facilities such as a satellite earth station, a 200-seater convention centre, a club and guest house, a shopping complex (Techno-Mall), banks, ATMs, restaurants and conference rooms on campus. Furthermore, setting up of new units is accelerated by exemption from State level clearances as well as through ready-to-use incubation facilities.

Connectivity

Thiruvananthapuram is connected to the National Internet Backbone and Technopark is serviced by a variety of bandwidth providers, including Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Videsh Sanchar Nigam and Asianet Dataline, through fibre optic lines in the campus. There is a satellite earth station inside the Phase I campus as well.

FLAG Telecom—a subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm—has landed its FALCON global cable system at Thiruvananthapuram, providing direct connectivity to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Technopark is connected through fibre link, in self-healing redundant ring architecture to Reliance Internet Data Center and Gateway at Mumbai, directly connecting to FLAG, the undersea cable system backbone that connects 134 countries including U.S, U.K, Middle East and Asia Pacific. This provides connectivity with the Middle East, South East Asia, Far East, Europe and North America.[22][23]

Park Centre, the administration office of Technopark

Technopark Business Incubation Centre (T-BIC)

The Technopark Business Incubation Centre (T-BIC) aims to provide economically plug and play facilities to start-ups in the IT/ITES fields. This facility has given rise to over 47 successful ventures, many of whom have expanded by taking up space elsewhere in Technopark.[24] T-BIC currently has 8,000 sq ft (740 m2). (800 sq m.) at Park Centre, and this is being expanded with another 10,000 sq ft (930 m2). (1000 sq m.) in the newest Technopark building, Thejaswini.[25] One of the latest companies started at T-BIC is Entiresoft Technologies Private Limited.[24]

Expansion of Technopark and new projects

Phase II

Technopark has acquired 86 acres (0.35 km².) of land, for its Phase II expansion.

  • Out of this, 50 acres (0.2 km².) has been earmarked for Infosys and 36 acres (0.15 km².) for UST Global.[26]
    • Infosys is planning to create up to 2,500,000 sq ft (230,000 m2). (233,000 sq m.) of space to accommodate up to 15,000 professionals in the end. It plans to set up 600,000 sq ft (56,000 m2). (56,000 sq m.) in the first phase.[27]
    • UST Global is setting up a 3.2 Million sqft campus to be complete by 2015. Eight lakh sqft of space will be complete by January 2012.[28] Work on the campus was launched on 24 October 2007.[29]
  • Tata Consultancy Services has been allotted 25 acres (0.1 km².) within the campus for their software development centre.[30] This is in addition to the 14 acres (57,000 m2) of land allotted to them for setting up their new training centre—Peepul Park.
  • IBS Software Services is constructing a 450,000 sq ft (42,000 m2). (42,000 sq m.) office on 5 acres (0.02 km².) of land.[31] The first phase of the campus was inaugurated on 23 October 2007.[32]
  • Tata Elxsi Limited which is the product design arm of the US$68 billion Tata Group, has also taken 3.5 acres (0.01 km².) to build its state of the art design and development Centre. The first phase of the campus has been commissioned on 7 September 2007.[33]
  • The NeST group has also been allocated land to build a Development Centre, on which work has almost completed.

Phase III

Technopark has almost completed acquisition of 100 acres (0.4 km².) of land for Phase III expansion. Firms like Larsen & Toubro and the Rahejas are planning major developments within and around Technopark as well. L&T has already announced its plans to set up a 35 acre (0.15 km².) hybrid IT-and-residential park as part of Technopark Phase III.[6][34] Patni Computer Systems has already announced that it will set up a Rs 150 Crore ($US 32 Million) Development Centre in Phase III.[35]

The IInd and IIIrd phase of expansion of Technopark along with the ramping up of operations of the existing IT units are expected to see an investment of around Rs. 3000-4000 Crore ($US 0.75 Billion) and an additional employment creation of 80,000-100,000.

Phase IV expansion — Technocity

Main article: Technocity, Thiruvananthapuram

The Phase IV of Technopark is also referred to as the Technocity project. It involves a mixed use—IT, biotechnology, nanotechnology, commercial and residential development spread over 500 acres (2 km².) of land, about 5 km (3.1 mi) from the present campus. This land is currently being acquired. It will be a self-contained IT township with the potential to employ a hundred thousand professionals.[36][37] The expected investment in the project is around Rs 60 billion (Over US$1.5 Billion), as per latest estimates.[38]

Once Technocity's land acquisition is complete, Technopark will have an extent of close to 850 acres (3.5 km².), making it one of India's largest IT satellite townships, in geographic area, comparable to that of projects like the Mahindra World City in Chennai.

The Government of Kerala has decided to partner with multiple private developers for Technocity and has formed a special company — Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) - to take up the work.[39] 204 acres (0.8 km².) out of the project area has already been acquired.[40] A Request for Qualification was issued on 1 June 2008 and nine major developers including international majors Emaar and Forest City Enterprises have applied for qualification.[41]

Special Economic Zones in Technopark

There are three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) inside Technopark encompassing Phases I, II and III.[42] Phase IV will also become an SEZ once land acquisition is completed. This provides a range of attractive economic benefits to the companies operating within Technopark

Culture

Tech-A-Break parade in Technopark

The culture at Technopark is cosmopolitan and diverse and in keeping with its motto Harmony at Work. It has been often acclaimed as one of the greenest IT parks in the world,[43] The campus is lush green with balconies and expansive terraces on almost all buildings providing relief to professionals working here as greenery and fresh air.

Technopark houses companies and people from around the world. Indian companies have offices alongside IT and ITES companies from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy. This makes for a diverse multi cultural community, working in harmony. To promote harmony in this diversity Technopark has set up a range of facilities and annual events as technical conferences to trekking expeditions to the annual fiesta, Tech-a-break.

Technopark Club

The club in the campus of Phase I provides diverse facilities for professionals to unwind.[44] These include a gym, a swimming pool and courts for badminton and table tennis and beach volleyball. The Club also has a massage parlour, Vaisakha—a multi cuisine restaurant and provides tour operators for organising recreational travel of employees and their families.

The Club often organises multi cuisine food festivals to cater to the tastes of the diverse mix of people in Technopark besides events as discos, cultural competitions, and other events. Performers include well known rock groups, DJs and dance performers.[44]

Technopark Adventure Club

The Technopark Adventure Club provides adventure activities to employees of Technopark and their families. It holds activities like parasailing, rock climbing, rappelling, trekking and camping, paragliding camps at Munnar and corporate training camps.

The Club aims to take advantage of the diverse environs of Thiruvananthapuram to engage in adventure activities along with enjoying their idyllic beauty and solitude. With an ideal combination of hills, backwaters, beaches and forests close to Thiruvananthapuram, employees don't have to travel too far to indulge in their favourite activities.[45]

Tech-A-Break

Tech-A-Break is Technopark's annual cultural extravaganza.[46] Typically held over the course of a week, it kicks off with a Carnival parade and ends with performance by top-notch professional bands, dance groups and musicians.[47]

Socio-economic impact

Technopark has come to be the single largest source of employment in Kerala,[48][49] with over thirty thousand people working directly in the facility itself. Thus its impact on the city of Thiruvananthapuram has been very significant.

Flight connectivity with IT hubs like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad is available from Trivandrum International Airport. The combined disposable income of Technopark employees has brought an infusion of wealth into the entire region through secondary service activities like retail, hospitality, transportation, financial services and so on.

See also

Gallery

  • View of Bhavani building

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Kerala's Technopark to Be India's Largest IT park". The Indian Express. 14 January 2014. 
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Exports from companies in Technopark: Chapter 21, page:502, section:21.8" (PDF). Information And Communication Technology. Planning Board, Government of Kerala. 1 December 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2010. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Exports from companies in Technopark: Chapter 21, page:220, section:21.66" (PDF). Information And Communication Technology. Planning Board, Government of Kerala. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2011. 
  5. ↑ "RTI Response No ETPK:RTI:2011:5/60 Dated 23 April 2011". Retrieved 30 April 2011. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Campus Notes of Technopark". Technopark. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 5 March 2007. 
  7. ↑ "Mission of Technopark". Technopark. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2007. 
  8. ↑ "Thejaswini dedicated to the nation by Chief Minister". Technopark. Archived from the original on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2007. 
  9. ↑ About Technopark
  10. ↑ Accenture in Trivandrum Technopark
  11. ↑ "About the institute". IIITM-K. Retrieved 12 March 2007. 
  12. ↑ "R&D Projects and Servuces". IIITM-K. Retrieved 12 March 2007. 
  13. ↑ "About ASB". Asian School Business. Retrieved 12 March 2007. 
  14. ↑ "Board of Governors". Asian School Business. Retrieved 12 March 2007. 
  15. ↑ "Infrastructure". Technopark. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2007. 
  16. ↑ Technopark.org
  17. ↑ Technopark.org
  18. ↑ Technopark.org
  19. ↑ Vagroup.com
  20. ↑ Ibsplc.com
  21. ↑ Siproperty.in
  22. ↑ "Connectivity". Technopark,Trivandrum. 1 December 2009. Retrieved 30 March 2011. 
  23. ↑ Sanjay Anand. "Falcon to connect Middle East". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 February 2007. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Technopark TBIC.". Technopark. Retrieved 11 November 2011. 
  25. ↑ Sankar Radhakrishnan (22 February 2007). "Technopark to expand T-Bic facility". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 February 2007. 
  26. ↑ "US Technologies to set up own campus in Technopark". The Hindu Business Line. 28 February 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2006. 
  27. ↑ "Infosys plans expansion in Trivandrum". CIOL. 30 October 2006. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 23 February 2007. 
  28. ↑ "VS to launch work on UST campus". The Hindu. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2007. 
  29. ↑ "Stone laid for UST Global campus". The Hindu. 25 October 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2007. 
  30. ↑ Nevin John (8 March 2006). "TCS to setup new campus in Technopark". Rediff Money. Retrieved 24 August 2006. 
  31. ↑ "IBS to setup own campus in Technopark". The Hindu. 24 May 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2006. 
  32. ↑ "IBS opens new campus". The Business Standard. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2007. 
  33. ↑ "Tata Elxsi opens its new office". Technopark. 7 September 2007. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2007. 
  34. ↑ T. Ramavarman (6 February 2007). "Technopark expansion to begin soon". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 February 2007. 
  35. ↑ "Patni to set up Rs 150 Cr center in Technopark" (PDF). The Hindu. 2006-03-2006. Retrieved 21 February 2007. 
  36. ↑ "Infrastructure of Technopark". Technopark. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 22 February 2007. 
  37. ↑ Priya Padmanabhan (30 October 2006). "Infosys plans expansion in Trivandrum". CIOL News. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 21 February 2007. 
  38. ↑ "IT, ITES majors invited to invest in Kerala". The Hindu. Retrieved 5 November 2007. 
  39. ↑ "Multi-developer strategy for Kerala Technocity". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 September 2008. 
  40. ↑ "Acquisition begins for Technocity". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 September 2008. 
  41. ↑ "9 Majors in the race for Technocity". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 September 2008. 
  42. ↑ T. Nandakumar (1 March 2005). "New block to be opened at Technopark by October". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 February 2007. 
  43. ↑ "Location". Ernst & Young. Archived from the original on 27 February 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2007. 
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 "Technopark Club". Technopark. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007. 
  45. ↑ "Technopark Adventure Club". Technopark. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2007. 
  46. ↑ "Cultural fete at Technopark". The Hindu. 15 February 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007. 
  47. ↑ "Tech-A-Break". Technopark. Retrieved 24 February 2007. 
  48. ↑ Vipin V. Nair (1 August 2005). "We're catching up". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 February 2007. 
  49. ↑ UST largest employer in state

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Coordinates: 8°33′31″N 76°52′53″E / 8.55861°N 76.88139°E / 8.55861; 76.88139

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