Call to retain talent in State

KOCHI: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandans declaration to create one lakh job opportunities in the second phase expansion of Infopark has gained momentum with Board of Approval of the Union Commerce Ministry granting Special Economic Zone status to a portion of the land identified for the expansion

In a recent interview to the Hindu, Infopark CEO Siddhartha Bhattacharya said that there was no doubting the States potential to achieve that goal.

Quoting industry projections, he said that the increment in the non-tier 1ocations in the coming years was about 1.6 million jobs. �If we are to maintain the leadership position among the non-tier 1 locations we have the potential to grow from the existing 40,000 jobs to 3 million jobs, he said.

He said that the State needs to look outside software exports to maintain the growth rate. Higher end services like knowledge processes, legal processes, clever computing, engineering services, training, data centres should be relevant.

He cited small and medium enterprises as another potential avenue for growth since Kerala was inherently very strong in the area.

�We have to cultivate a lot of them and really make sure that they organically grow. They need to be provided the right environment and branding to ensure that they grow to their potential,� he said. He said that the State had been able to retain only one per cent of its native IT talent while the very same talent accounted for seven to eight per cent of the knowledge works all over the country.