Thrissur all set for IT park

The IT park coming up in this Kerala town is expected to provide employment opportunities to 5,000 people, state Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said here on Thursday, while handing over possession of the land to the IT department.

The 42 acres at the Koratty neighbourhood were handed over to Secretary (IT) Ajay Kumar, who said that Infopark Trissur would form a part of the hub and spoke model of development planned with Infopark Kochi acting as the hub.

"With its proximity to the Cochin airport and availability of ready to use power and infrastructure, Infopark Trissur will have a jump start in attracting investors and IT companies," he said.

Built with an initial investment of over Rs.500 million, the IT park is expected to provide direct employment opportunities to 5,000 IT/ITES professionals within two years.

This comes at a time when Technopark officials are finalising the master plan for the first district level IT park in Kerala, to come up at Kundara near Kollam. Its foundation stone will be laid next month.

In May last year, the state government announced that IT level parks would be developed under private-public partnership model in all 14 districts of Kerala.

In the first phase, IT parks would come up in Kollam, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

Currently, IT companies operating in the state are based either at the Technopark campus at the state capital Thiruvananthapuram or in the Infopark campus in Kochi.

Nearly 150 companies are operating in the Technopark. They employ close to 20,000 people, while around 40 companies that employ nearly 8,000 people are in Infopark.

The government would hold 51 percent stake in the district level parks and the rest will be with private and public companies, which would build the necessary infrastructure.

Source: The Hindu

National Workshop on Technical Communication

Dates: Feb. 27-28, 2009

IIITM-K, Technopark, Trivandrum

Technical communication primarily consists of reporting specialized information and it is for the practical use of readers or listeners who need that information. The information is needed to perform a task, answer a question, solve a problem or make a decision. The need is definite and the information is to be used.

Technical communication is the product of a writer or a speaker who fully understands the subject, focuses on the subject, not himself or herself and conveys one meaning only. It is tailored to the specific needs of an audience and is at the level of technicality that will be fully understood by the specified audience.

Documentations, manuals, reports, proposals and presentations form an integral part of any organization. There is a strong need to help people to present the technical information effectively so that the intended audience can perform an action or make a decision based on it. This workshop is designed to give an exposition to the basic topics of technical communication.

Topics Covered:

· Basics of Technical Communication

· Technology in Communication

· Research Paper, Dissertation and Thesis

· Technical Proposals

· Report Writing

· Active Listening

· Effective Presentation Skills

· Letters, Memos and E-mails

· Interviews

· Group Communication

Organized by :

Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala

Please click here to obtain more information.

Kerala IT companies get calls from Satyam's clients, employees

It is advantage time for IT companies in Kerala. With Satyam under a cloud, the software companies in the state are busy trying to win over clients of the tainted IT bellwether even as they are flooded with job applications from Satyam employees.

A few large IT companies in the state either work with Satyam or are competitors.

The head of a leading IT company said on the condition of anonymity, that across the IT industry efforts to take over Satyam's clients in India or abroad has begun and they were also at it.

"We are working aggressively in India and abroad for this," the IT firm chief said.

Meanwhile, efforts to reassure nervous clients have also begun.

VK Mathews, chief of IBS Software Services- one of the biggest IT companies in the state- said they have started reaching out to clients to explain their position as part of confidence building measures in the wake of what happened at Satyam.

"One should not generalize with what happened to Satyam. The need of the hour is for regulating agencies like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Registrar of Companies, and the Company Law Board to step in and see that such things do not happen again," he added.

Kerala is home to around 200 IT companies of varying size that employ close to 25,000 people and have clients across the globe.

Last year, software exports from the state crossed Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).

Founder president of Group of Technopark companies (GTECH), Sunil Gupta said that since Thursday, the day after the Satyam chief admitted to a Rs 70 billion fraud, he has been getting frantic calls from clients.

"We work with Satyam for five companies in the country and we are their competitors in the US. The biggest fallout of this would be that clients will now insist on very strict insurance clauses, thereby leading to increased insurance premiums which will be borne by companies like us," said Gupta, CEO of the Kerala operations of the New Jersey-headquartered Collabera IT company.

Both Mathews and Gupta said since the Satyam bubble burst, they have been flooded with resumes of Satyam employees.

Source: Economic Times

Kerala plans to set up IT parks in all districts

The government of Kerala, as part of its IT expansion plan, has kicked off efforts to set up IT parks in every district of Kerala.

As an initial step towards this goal, the state government today handed over the land for setting up an IT park in Kollam to Ajaykumar, Secretary, IT, in the presence of the District Collector A Shahjahan and officials of Technopark and Revenue Department in Kollam. 

The official launch of the development activities of Kollam Technopark will be done by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on February 10 at Kundara. 

The 40-acre campus will have an investment of over Rs 800 crore and will provide direct employment opportunities for 20,000 IT/ITeS professionals. 

This is the first district level IT Park that is being launched by the Kerala government as part of the new IT Policy. 

Speaking at the function after receiving the land for setting up Technopark Kollam, Minister for Education M A Baby said, "The Technopark at Thiruvananthapuram, for which the foundation stone was laid by the late E K Nayanar, has become a symbol of pride for the State and people of Kerala and the government." 

Today, as many as 150 nationally and internationally reputed companies operate out of the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark. 

"The Thiruvananthapuram Technopark is our inspiration to set up similar parks in every district and the dream is coming to realization with this ceremony," said Ajaykumar. 

"Kollam in its own right is a developed district with the growing cashew industry, excellent educational institutions and now with the setting up of Technopark, we hope to see Kollam flourish and develop giving as a great IT hub providing better employment and a quality life to all professionals who choose to work from Kollam in future and make this place their home."

Source: CyberMedia News

National workshop on scientific computing

The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala (IIITM-K) is organising a national workshop on scientific computing on January 30 and 31, 2009.

This is part of a series of training programmes initiated by the IIITM-K to promote quality education. Classes will be led by the IIITM-K faculty who are academicians with Ph.D and extensive international-level research experience and will be supported by the Institute’s excellent IT infrastructure.

Scientific computing is the field of study associated with mathematical modelling and methods for providing numerical solutions to problems in science and engineering. The workshop is designed to give an exposition to the basic topics of scientific computing. It would also give a brief tutorial on Scilab, a free and open-source software for scientific computation widely used in numerical analysis, statistics, control systems design and digital signal processing.

The last date for registration is January 16, 2009. The workshop is free for the faculty of Government colleges and Universities in Kerala. 

Visit http://www.iiitmk.ac.in/nwsc2009/ for more details.

BarCamp Kerala 4

What is a BarCamp?
An informal gathering of all people interested in Computers, Gadgets, Internet and technology!

BarCamp Kerala 4
The fourth unconference BarCamp in Kerala is scheduled on 18th January at IIM Kozhikode.

Discussions

Kenney Jacob on

Social Media - Business Opportunities

Anand Subramanian on

Wordpress - Content Management Simplified

Vishnu Gopal on

Clojure: Lisp in the Java world

Praseed Pai on

The Paradox of Free & Open Source Software

This event is held in conjuction with the IIM-K’s Annual Management and Cultural Festival - ‘BACKWATERS’ scheduled on 16th, 17th and 18th of January 2009. This fest will host 15+ Management Events and Cultural Events that will see participation from 50+ top B-Schools across the country. The events also see participation from 1500+ Corporate Delegates, IIMK Alumni, Entrepreneurs, Undergraduates, etc.

Visit http://www.barcampkerala.org/blog/?p=189 for more details.

Share Photos you click on your mobile phone!

Mobshare Broadcasts your photos instantly to all your friends to their mobile.

Your friends receive instant photo broadcasts from you as an SMS with an embedded URL. No application needs to be installed on your mobile.

If you want your photos to be displayed on orkut, you then need to install the Mobshare Orkut Application.

mobME Wireless Solutions (P) Ltd. developed out of a partnership firm - Torque Technology Solutions which was incubated in T-BIC, Technopark, Kerala. 

Today the company has around 30 employees, a Marketing Office & a Development Center in Cochin and Biz Dev Centers in Mumbai & Gurgaon. They have successfully created many profit centers within the company. SMSC Solutions, IVR (In-bound & Out-bound) Services, Online Bulk SMS (www.FastAlerts.in & www.BuyBulkSMS.com) have all grown into steady businesses.

mobME is featured in the 2008 NASSCOM 100 Innovators list and lately on board of the Vodafone network as a peer2peer photo sharing partner.

www.mobshare.in