128. Trivandrum Techno Park is now a mega real estate firm selling land to foreign cohortees. P S Remesh Chandran

128

Trivandrum Techno Park is now a mega real estate firm selling land to foreign cohortees

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor at Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 1 By Yotta Company. Graphics: Adobe SP.

When Techno Park first started in Trivandrum decades back, land and infrastructure and capital were offered to brilliant entrepreneurs who were selected through a process of rigorous tests. Mr. Vijayaraghavan was the CEO then. Only those with genuine proto-typed products and viable projects were selected then. So, many were allocated rooms and units there. As almost all of these products were new in their respective fields, banks declined to finance these units. Either the loan managers of these banks were low lifes, or they expected nothing below the level of Tatas, Birlas and Kirloskers. So these units became history in spite of Mr. Vijayaraghavan's sincere efforts to make them a reality. But his efforts were tacitly thwarted by the lead banks then, whose management perfectly well foresaw and wished the local entrepreneurs ousted someday soon and doors opened to big companies accustomed to bribe-giving in a large scale. So policy changed, of course through the intervention of top level corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, and the preference switched to big companies from small native entrepreneurs. Techno Park Trivandrum became a Real Estate Enterprise. Anyone with money and a name could go there, purchase land, rent or construct buildings and do anything or do not do anything at all. No industrial entrepreneurship or proven technical and industrial acumen was needed, and, no native-orientation. Why this Techno Park was started and how it secured land from people to house itself in was by saying it was going to promote native entrepreneurs with imagination and knowledge but no money, and help them obtain seed capital and working capital through public enterprises and establish themselves in the industrial field. After obtaining this land and ousting native entrepreneurs skillfully through banks, this mega real estate firm is now selling land to foreign cohortees. It was just like the old Mini Industrial Estates, The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, The Kerala Finance Development Corporation, The Small Industries Development Corporation and the District Industrial Centres joining hands and power to crush native entrepreneurs out, but in a larger and refined scale.

Article Title Image 2 By Vishnu Prasad. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 

We can go free market, if the land and state resources were obtained the same way. But here they were not obtained that way. Here the question is 'what were the advantages Trivandrum Techno Park offered to native entrepreneurs with indigenous products when it was started, and what were the stated objectives?' The founders of this Techno Park who are still alive will surely have to tell a story of betrayal- betrayal of those indigenous products and those versatile geniuses who were allotted the first units there. Of cource Free Developers' Techno Parks are already coming in Kerala. But as far as Trivandrum Techno Park is concerned, it was not a question of switching to the advantages of free market, but of misusing state resources obtained through publicly-stated commitment to helping native entrepreneurs with no money, not even margin money, but with skills, in establishing themselves in industry. If one can go back through media archives, one can read quite a number of public statements made by this Techno Park’s authorities then. It must also be remembered that every Services Project was turned down by them then: only Production Units. Now they changed policy to accommodate Service Units.

As far as Trivandrum Techno Park is concerned, it was not a question of switching to the advantages of free market, but of misusing state resources obtained through publicly stated commitment to helping native entrepreneurs with no money, not even margin money, but with skills, in establishing themselves in industry. If one can go back through media archives, one can read quite a number of public statements made by this Techno Park’s authorities then. It must also be remembered that every Services Project was turned down: only Production Units were allowed.

This is exactly what conglomerates and authorities do to native entrepreneurs with indigenous products in India. But where there is demand, there will be supply: Free Developers' Techno Parks are already coming to Kerala.

Article Title Image 3 By Chandu JS. Graphics: Adobe SP.

More English articles by the author at:
http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/

Malayalam articles by the author at:
http://sahyadrimalayalam.blogspot.in/

More political article by the author here:
http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/p/list-of-political-articles.html
 
About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

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E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

Tags:

Kerala Industry, Trivandrum Techno Park, Real Estate Kerala, KSIDC KFDC SIDCO DIC, Industrial Entrepreneurs, Mini Industrial Estates, Banks Finance, Loan Managers, Bribing, Infrastructure Capital, // Free Market, Free Developers, Public Enterprises, Indigenous Products, Production Service Units, Viable Projects, Proto Typed Products, State Resources, Politicians Bureaucrats,

First published on 15 August 2019