Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi, Thiruvananthapuram: Sridhar Vembu, the man who took IT into rural Tamil Nadu and built a world class product and a multi-billion dollar Zoho Corporation, is all set to replicate the model in a Kerala village where he intends to set up the Corporation’s research and development centre.
The plan is to set up the research and development centre at Kottarakkara village in Kollam, which has received an enthusiastic response from state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and finance minister KN Balagopal. In fact, the finance minister had visited the Tamil Nadu set up of the company at Tenkasi few months ago.
Hugely impressed, since then the Kerala government too has been keen to have Zoho set up shop in the state as well, and plans are in a very advanced stage for setting the unit in Kerala.
The Zoho corporation’s move to set up the R&D centre will generate at least 1,000 jobs in the village and its neighbourhood, and more important it will put this Kerala village on the global IT map. About two decades ago, Sridhar Vembu went to a nondescript village Tenkasi and turned a pulp manufacturing factory into a technology centre, to build different IT products.
Highly impressed by his success in turning a rural area into a IT hub manufacturing world class products, the Kerala state government was keenly wooing Vembu.
According to Kerala government sources, officials from Zoho Corporation would be visiting Kottarakkara in a few days for an inspection of the site. Zoho founder Vembu had visited Kerala last week for a Digital Summit where he announced intentions to look at the state as well for a project.
“Looking away from major cities and focussing on rural towns for setting up high-end technology companies is one way to stop the exodus of youngsters seeking overseas jobs,” Vembu is reported to have said while addressing the summit held last Friday.
If rural Kerala can host a state of the art research and development centre, it can capitalise on the intellectual prowess of the youth, many will not leave the country for opportunities.
The trick is in creating opportunities nearer to people in the villages so that the migration is also checked and the motivation should be build world class goods and services. If our goods and services are good, then the world will sit up, take notice and buy.
