Kerala becomes smarter

KOCHI: The inauguration of the first phase of SmartCity Kochi on Saturday  was a rare and colourful ceremony attended by a host of dignitaries from India and the United Arab Emirates. 

It was  powered by the light waves in different colours that lashed the digital screens which encircled the audience and mounted on the interiors of the makeshift venue as background.

The function was marked by the brilliant display of these waves while towards the fag end,  the cultural feast was  the icing on the cake. Cine actor and eminent danseuse Lakshmi Gopalaswamy and her team came out with a traditional dance performance which was followed by the specialties of the state like Kalaripayattu and other martial arts and also Kathakali with the recorded rendering of the popular Malayalam song “Keranirakaladum” by P. Jayachandran in the background.

Another acrobatic cinematic performance by a group of youngsters left the audience spellbound and all the events had the  support of the swiftly moving images of the lush green faces of Kerala and other native imageries in the digital background.

The function started and ended with the rendering of the national anthems of UAE and India at the venue mounted near the SmartCity building on the banks of Kadambrayar. A message from President Pranab Mukherjee was read out on the digital screen by his press secretary Venu Rajamani.

In his speech,  IT minister Kunhalikutty said that President Pranab Mukherjee would  attend the meeting on February 27 in which Kerala will be declared as the first digital state in the country.  

Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also delivered a message congratulating Kochi on successfully hosting the SmartCity.   Industrialist M.A. Yousafali also lauded CM Oommen Chandy and chairman of Dubai Holding Mohammad Al Gargawi for  working  to realise the project. TV personality Ranjini Haridas was the master of ceremony.

Launch fails to rope in IT majors

Though the Smart City IT project first phase inauguration function was a grand affair, it missed the keenly awaited announcement of the names of the companies participating in the first phase.  The authorities did not come out with any official explanation for this.

Later a list of 22 companies was given out against an anticipated 27 companies. Interestingly there were not many IT companies in the list and many of the IT firms were relatively middle or small ones operating out of Technopark already.

The 22 founder partner companies in Smart City are Little Gems, Fresh Fast Foods Pvt Ltd (Subway), Idea Cellular Ltd, Aster Medcity, State Bank of Travancore, IHITS Technologies, Dynamicnext Technologies, Vitrio Solutions, Sngnet Software Solutions, Exza Software Services, Logiticks Techno Labs LLP, Sai BPO Services, Musthafa and Almana, 7 Nodes Technology Solutions, TKM Infotech, Ndimensionz Solutions, Mariappa Marine Solutions, DRD Communications and Software, IBS Software Services, Path Solutions India, AgriGenome Labs and Litmus7 Systems Consulting.

The dignitaries present at the inaugural function included ministers K. Babu and V. K. Ebrahim Kunju, K. V. Thomas MP, MLAs Dominic Presentation, Hibi Eden, Benny Behanan and V. P. Sajeendran.

The welcome address was given by Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson. Others present were IT principal secretary P. H. Kurien, PWD secretary A P. M. Muhammed Haneesh, district collector M. G. Rajamanickam,Fort Kochi sub-collector S. Suhas, Group CEO of Dubai Properties Abdullatif Al Mulla, Abdulla Al Sharafi, Smart City Kochi vice-chairman Jabir Bin Hafis, CEO Baju George, Kochi SEZ Development Commissioner Dr A. N. Safeena, IBS Group chairman V K Mathews, GEMS group chairman Sunny Varkey and Regency Group chairman Shamsudeen Bin Muhiyudeen.