While the land is flush with NRI money, most of it is directed into palatial houses and real estate. Lack of investments in business has meant that a good number of youth has gone into lucrative but illegal activities, promoted by the so-called mafias – land mafia, spirit mafia, quarry mafia, sand-ming mafia etc. (In the strict sense of the word, none of this has achieved the level of “mafia”, which is actually a parallel government. At least, not yet!)

Of these, the one that has raised eyebrows of the central investigating agencies (DRI, ED, CBI, IB) is the sudden growth of “land-mafia”. Kerala is a small state with a high density of population, and naturally, land prices are on the higher side. Inward remittances from the Gulf already existed, but the growth in IT sector has meant that a lot more young people have a high disposable income in their hands. Unlike in the past when investment was limited to bank deposits or land, many more investment avenues exist now, like a well-controlled equity market and mutual funds (India has one of the most transparent mutual fund industry in the world). However, either due to ignorance or risk-awareness, those in IT still invest a good deal of their money in real estate. Most financial planners agree that the value of one’s real estate investment should not be more than 25% of one’s entire asset, but for IT professionals in Kerala, it is much higher, sometimes more than 100% (which means they are in debt due to loans). Buying flats to give out on rent is even worse – as any qualified advisor will tell you: the yield from them is less than bank FDs, even after including tax rebates. The current trend is based more on emotion and “also-ran”, rather than reason and facts. Banks have no problems in disbursing such loans to IT professionals though, due to their high income earning capacity.

Many middlemen have used these sunshine days to buy huge tracts of land from ordinary folks who reside in and around urban areas. What is alarming, however, is the arrival of “container money”. Last year, fake Indian currencies worth crores (thought to be printed at government security presses of neighbouring countries) have been seized from ships and containers at Kochi. DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) officials believe what has been caught is only the tip of the iceberg. Larger amounts have already passed into our economy. The only area where such huge amounts of money could change hands is the real estate sector, since other areas are now pretty well regulated by the Central Government. Since only 20-30% of the actual sale value is shown in the land records, and the rest changes hands as solid cash, a good amount of it is thought to be fake currency..

One significant point is the history of the real estate developers. Only a very few have been around for years. Most others have arrived, under the pretense of “Gulf” money. Coincidently, the above-mentioned containers too have arrived from the Persian Gulf. There is probably only one developer, Sobha Developers, who release their audited figures to the public. Others are private limited companies and apparently find no reason to release their figures, even after all the charges against the real estate developers. Building rules are nonchalantly violated by many newly constructed flats. For example, the building codes specify that there should be enough space around the apartment so that a standard fire engine can reach anywhere around the building. Look around in the city. At some flats, even a Maruti Zen would find that difficult!

IT professionals, by scorning other investment avenues, seems to be promoting the cause of the fraudulent real estate industry. Their readiness to buy land or flats at abysmally high rates enable the unscrupulous builders and their agents continue to thrive. (Amazingly, a flat at Kazhakootam anywhere near Technopark in Trivandrum costs as much as one at Hyderabad HiTech City? The internal finish of the ones at Trivandrum, however, are hopelessly pedestrian). The IT professionals buy the land or flat in the hope that land prices fetch highest returns. True, land prices do escalate faster than most other avenues (except probably stocks), but when they try to sell the land, they will be surprised to find that no one would be willing to buy it in “white”. In essence, if they do sell, they have actually converted their white money (when they had bought the land) into unaccountable black money. Bonus: Risk of the gotten black money being counterfeit is extra!

What a pity will it be when the IT professionals, who has sacrificed a lot for the economic spurt of this state, are themselves responsible for destabilising it. Whether they would continue to invest in land and flats or invest in much more productive and legitimate avenues, would determine whether this land would fall to the mafia -this time, in all sense of the word.

The competition is held to promote the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship among students. The selected projects will be eligible for incubation support from Technopark. The most innovative, socially relevant and commercially exploitable projects will be eligible for the Degree C award comprising a cash prize Rs.1 lakh.

The theme for this year’s contest is ‘Rural technology and global warming.’

Earlier this year, project synopses were received from about 1400 AICTE-approved colleges and universities in the country. Over 90 project synopses were also received from 12 States namely, Haryana, UP, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The project ideas were in the disciplines of Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics & Communication, Mechanical, Chemical, and Textile Technology

Now, 33 projects are short listed.of these, 33 have been selected by a high-level screening committee comprising subject experts drawn from the academia, industry and research institutions for the final phase of the competition to be held in Technopark. The working models of the projects will be demonstrated before a high level committee.

“The motto behind this contest is to promote and reward innovative ideas of our budding engineers and to create and innovation and entrepreneurship climate in India,” says Technopark CEO, R K Nair.

In 2007, the Degree C cash prize was won by Kongu Engineering College from Tamil Nadu for their radio frequency identification-based rationing system. The second prize of Rs.25,000 went to PES College from Maharashtra for their project ‘aqua silencer.’

Technopark is doing a great job by promoting the ideas and talents of young engineers in the country. the students are getting a golden opportunity to showcase their talents in both business and technology, if it has a potential it will be sponsored and funding and infrastructures will be provided by the technopark with the help of various institutions. Many companies started with just an idea in the technopark incubation space. Torque is the best example. it was one of the success storied told by the student entrepreneurs. IDS, Dundas and many of them proved their potential from the incubation to multi storied buildings. technoparklive wishes all the best for such endeavors of technopark, as well as the young engineers for their dream projects…

Visit http://www.techtop.in/ for more details.

Total – 92 acres

Out of this, 42 acres will be developed by a private developer as SEZ. The cost for the project will be 800 crores. Remaining 50 acres will be embarked for IT companies

http://keralaitparks.org/projects.html

Technocity updates

The SPV set up by GoK for developing the 507 acres Technocity project,Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) has come into existance.
State Cabinet has cleared the Request For Qualification (RFQ) for the project. This is the first stage of the global bidding stage and will be issued in the coming 2-3 weeks, marking the kick-off of the mega-project.

Vanilla Networks Pvt. Ltd., an Australian based outsourcing firm with
offices in Technopark (Trivandrum) and Infopark (Kochi) requires talented PHP programmers and Web Designers to support theirinternational clients.

1. Software Engineer / Senior Software Engineer (PHP)
—————————————————–

The ideal candidate should be a graduate with good knowledge of PHP,
MySQL and Linux and be able to converse with international clients in
Written English. Knowledge of other applications like Perl etc would
be an added advantage.

2. Web Designers
—————-

The ideal candidate should be a creative web designer with competence
in Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and other related
applications.

Advantages of working in Vanilla Networks include
* Fixed Eight hour shifts with no overtime whatsoever
* Attractive salary package based on experience and expertise, and pay
reviews every six months
* Accelerated career growth and opportunities for taking up selected
certifications.

Submit your CV to yahoo@vanillanetworks.com to be called for an interview.

OR

walk-in with updated resume to Vanilla Networks Pvt Ltd., 2nd Floor,
Tapasya, Infopark, Kochi . OR. #12, Nila, Thiruvananthapuram between 8
AM and 4 PM, Monday to Friday.

It seems the take over game is repeating in IT industry after the giant take overs by Indian steel and pharmacy companies.

Accentia Technologies, a Technopark- based firm specialising in Healthcare Receivables Cycle Management (HRCM) has taken over the New Jersey (US)-based Oak Technologies and its subsidiary company, Vasant Scribes, operating from Hyderabad.

Accentia Technologies is one of the prime companies in technopark with a huge employee base and revenue.

This is IBS’ second office in Europe after London and its 14th worldwide.IBS already has a fully integrated seaport operation management solution iPort™ in the Ocean Transportation LoB. iPort™ is implemented at three ports under the Sharjah Ports Authority as well as at the Port of Male (Maldives Port Authority). The product supports the entire gamut of port operations ranging from marine operations, cargo & container operations, yard operations, cargo delivery to billing of all services rendered by a seaport. The Technopark-based IBS is SEI CMMI Level 5 and PCMM Level 5 assessed, ISO 9001:2000, TickIT and ISO 27001:2005 certified. It has six software development centres across the world.

Way to go IBS !!!

out of 172 voters
92% of people said – Kerala IT.com 2008 was a Big failure.

Though the Event had much exposure in & out of Technopark – the participants for the event where only a handful, they’ve got only infosys and IBS from technopark. The event was not organized properly by the Officials & when they approached Microsoft – They Rejected it on the spot. No more information was given out about it & also many other companies too did the same at Kerala IT.com.

Hope that they learned a lesson(?) , and will arrange it well in next time…

- Microsoft OS resource with over 5 Yrs experience.

- Strong in SMS Package creation and deployment.

- Strong in Novel ZenWorks

- At least 1 year experience in migration of packages from Zenworks to SMS

- Preferred – Experience in migration of entire environments from Novel to Microsoft

Send your resume to technoparklive@gmail.com