- Saturday, April 27, 2024
The state’s industries minister said that it has 44 rivers, big and small, and there will be no shortage of water.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE south Indian state of Kerala, the country’s only communist-ruled one, has written to top technology firms in Bengaluru, capital of the neighbouring state of Karnataka, requesting them to consider it for expansion following reports about growing water crisis in the nation’s IT hub.
Speaking to the Economic Times on Tuesday (26), Kerala’s industries and law minister P Rajeeve confirmed that after reading reports about Bengaluru’s water crisis, they have approached the IT firms offering them various facilities, including water. He said the coastal state has 44 rivers — big and small — and water is not an issue.
Bengaluru, a hub of India’s IT industry worth $254 billion by revenue, is grappling with a serious water shortage of 500 million litres daily with the onset of summer.
Read: India’s water crisis worsens as reservoirs fast drain out
In Kerala, on the other hand, new tech facilities are being constructed. The minister told the news outlet that Kerala has four international airports, besides good infrastructure in terms of roads, railway and port connectivity.
The Prestige Group has set up a tech park in Kochi while the Brigade Group is making a similar one in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. Both these groups are headquartered in Bengaluru.
Read: Pledge to conserve water taken at World Water Day event at Parmarth Niketan
Kochi’s Infopark has its own facilities besides those built by private developers such as Brigade, Carnival, LuLu Group and Asia Cyber Park, the report added.
Rajeeve also said that the government of Kerala has made a dedicated team to look after the state’s requests for investments. He did not divulge names of the companies his officials approached but said they were in talks with some of them.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader said they want to develop Kerala on the lines of Silicon Valley.
“We have several advantages to host the tech sector, including a vast talent pool of technology graduates,” he told the Economic Times.
He also said while the state has three major facilities in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, the government aims to set up smaller tech parks in the proposed corridors to support fresh investments, with connectivity and other infrastructure.
