Kerala's Demographic Advantage Will Fuel Indian Startups: Shashi Tharoor According to data provided by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kerala recognized 4,251 start-ups as of April 30, 2023
By Paromita Gupta •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, believes that Kerala will regain its status of a tech hub. Notably, the country's first IT park stands in Thiruvananthapuram, built back in 1991.
"Thiruvananthapuram is back with a vengeance. We are saying to the world we are ready to take on the challenges. And the best is yet to come, as age is on our side. We know that Indians have a huge perpendicular advantage of demography. This is the time for us to seize the advantage," he adds.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kerala recognized 4,251 start-ups as of April 30, 2023. The number increased by 974 in 12+ months. Notably, the Kerala Government has been one of the most active in nurturing start-up ecosystems as a state. With initiatives such as Entrepreneurship Development Centres (IEDC) for colleges, Young Entrepreneurship Programme (YIP), incubation and acceleration programmes and corporate innovation, the state is on a transformative path.
"The growing importance of innovation in entrepreneurship in Kerala and India is no surprise. It demonstrates the society's growing faith in finding new ways to solve traditional age-old problems," adds Tharoor.
"A young country where fresh graduates could join in the dynamic, productive and youthful workforce which could be the engines of the world. But it will only work in our favour if we can educate and train our people to seize opportunities in the 21st century. We (Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala) have lots of capable, skilled and educated young people ready to take on the challenge. In Kerala, we are confident that we have no shortage of abled educated people ready to take on this challenge," he adds.
Continuing the tradition of innovation in the state, Tharoor has set up a challenge. A challenge to 50 HNIs of Kerala to pool one million US dollars each to fund the startups in the state.
"We are ready. Are you?" Notably, to work on the start-up ecosystem of the state, Kerala Startup Mission signed a MoU with Belgium, Australia and the State Bank of India (SBI). Tharoor made the statement during a keynote address at the inaugural function of Huddle Global 2023, a start-up conclave hosted by Kerala Start-up Mission (KSUM) at Adimalathura in Thiruvananthapuram.
