Let this year be Kerala’s Year of the Urge

It’s New Year, and the media, as usual, is busy picking the Person of the Year. Irrepressible politicians or stars from sports or cinema, top most listings. But, given a choice I would cast my vote for Anish Achuthan as Kerala’s Person of the Year 2022. Well, I can see the raised eyebrows and hear the chorus – Anish, who?

Anish Achuthan may not be a name too well known to Kerala, like cricketer Sanju Samson or movie actor Fahd Fazil. Yet, he is one of 2022’s superstars who belongs to a rare Malayali breed – techie entrepreneur businessmen. Along with his two friends, Achuthan has built Kerala’s first unicorn startup – Open Financial Technologies. To most Malayalis, terms like “unicorns” (firms with a market valuation of US$1 billion or around 8,300 crore rupees at the present rate) and “startups” may not sound too familiar either. Though Kerala has a few unicorn companies, Open Financial Technologies – registered at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district – is the first startup to enter the elite club.

Usually, achievements only in academics, sports, literature, cinema, or politics enter Malayali radar and win our approval. The reason is simple. Kerala is not quite used to winners in fields like science & technology or business. This is despite Kerala’s past record of producing India’s best scientists like Janaki Ammal, Anna Mani, and P.R. Pisharadi. We were once the country’s pioneers in banking (from the early 20th century) or even in electronics, having launched India’s first public sector electronics firm (Keltron) during the 1970s or the first technology park (Technopark) in the 1990s. But all that is history, and contemporary Kerala has been known as barren for business, technology, and science, barring a few exceptions.

Since much has been written and talked on this, I don’t intend to go into it now. However, I can’t resist a gut feeling that Kerala may finally turn a new leaf to stake its claim in the startup revolution spreading across the nation. For, startups appear to suit much of Kerala’s ethos and are also immune to many of its in-built hurdles. They are created by young minds driven by ideas and not necessarily by academic achievements or the conventional factors of production, Kerala constitutionally lacks from. Besides are the push factors – Kerala's unrelenting unemployment and the El Dorado drying up in the Gulf.

Look at what's happening in India’s barely one-decade-old startup world. The number of startups grew exponentially from 400 in 2014 to cross 70,000, creating 35 lakh jobs. The number is set hit 1 lakh firms by 2025 with a total value of 82 trillion rupees. From India’s first startup unicorn (InMobi) that appeared in 2011, the elite club has grown to 105 members and is tipped to cross 200 by 2025.

Angel investors and venture capitalists from all over the world who never took India seriously until recently, now queue up before even startups in obscure villages. India now has the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. Rising internet penetration and the incomes, the pandemic which made our lives online-driven and the proactive policies of the governments have indeed fuelled the growth with investment, seed money, technology business incubators, etc. As many as 60 Indian unicorns were added in the last two years. 

All that is fine, but what the heck has it to do with the “business-unfriendly” Kerala? Yes, you have reason to be sceptical. Is it okay for Kerala to have just one among the 100-plus Indian unicorns?

Yet, I think a wave is building up along the Kerala coast. The startup story could change Kerala's image.  Not just because of the statistics, though they also aren't too bad even after ignoring the hype. According to Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the number of startups has grown from less than five to as many as 4,000 during the last six years. They have attracted a combined funding of 4,500 crore rupees. Fintechs lead the Kerala startup field, with SaaS following. Unlike other states, hardware firms have attracted more investment funds in Kerala, clocking 6% as against the all-India figure of 0.6%. 

The 1,890 crore rupees of funding from both private (Indian and foreign) and public sources including debt funds flowed to Kerala-origin startups in 2021 was a record, reported Mathrbhumi. Those which topped were Open (775 crores), JIFFY.ai (255 crores), CareStack (168 crores) MedGenome (123 crores), Zaara Biotech (73 crores) and CloudSEK (50 crores). According to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vjayan, who appears keen on startups, Kerala aims to have 15,000 more startups which would generate 2 lakh jobs in next five years.

Like the central government, Kerala government also has been proactive in backing startups. As much as 8,200 crore rupees has been disbursed in various forms to the new firms. This year Kerala scored a hat-trick by securing “Top Performer” status for the third year in a row for building start-up ecosystems. Kerala has been ranked with Gujarat and Karnataka as per the 2021’s startup rankings by the Central Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. Kerala was placed eighth among the states in last year’s Innovation Index published by Niti Aayog, the central government’s policy think tank. Kerala’s rank in the latest Ease of Doing Business report too has considerably improved.

Yet, much more is to be done by the state and also society before we celebrate Kerala’s startup odyssey. Many companies continue to register in Kerala only to fly out to Bengaluru once it reaches the first milestone. Startup funding has been falling across the country from mid-2022 due to global economic problems. Kerala-based firms are yet to make it to India’s top lists. The state government has much more to do. Politicians and bureaucrats too have to focus more to sustain the tempo.

As pointed out by this newsletter earlier, though the Big Huddle is an excellent state initiative, care has to be applied not to let it reduce to a muddle as it often happened at its latest edition. Above all, Kerala society also needs to feel the urge which would only make its leaders act. Let 2023 be Malayali’s Year of the Urge.

(MG Radhakrishnan is the former Editor of Asianet News)

Tech giants get ready for the live streaming race

Keeping up with the theme of looking ahead, what may well turnout to be a game changer in the coming year is live streaming in the sports sector. The just-concluded World Cup Football saw Jiocinema providing free access of the matches, probably only country where fans could watch the World Cup action without paying a single penny. Reliance which bagged the rights by paying around 450 crores (5.5 million US dollars) and garnered over 32 million viewers in the bargain, reports Analytics India Magazine. It will be interesting to watch how they go about with their coverage of the Indian Premier League cricket this year.

In the scramble for a slice of the global pie, global technology giants are entering the picture. However, coverage of grassroot level sports is still yet to catch the attention of the big technology companies in India. As the Brahmaputra Volleyball League demonstrates, successes can be achieved from the ground up and it brings into play a demographic that every business wants to woo: teens who will be consumers of tomorrow. Despite the lack of deep pockets, live streaming of Kerala tennis ball cricket and local basketball have already started via YouTube. With the arrival of additional OTT platforms and 5G, surely, we should be seeing more action in Kerala too, especially when businesses realize the potential of such platforms.

Look East, Kerala techies!

Indian IT service firms are the top foreign employers in the Philippines and employ over 150,000 Filipinos, wrote Indian ambassador to that country, Sambhu S. Kumaran. In an illuminating column in the Philstar Global, the envoy also said the young, tech-savvy generation of India and the Philippines should forge a connected digital growth. This could be of interest to Kerala techies, especially those in the agritech sector as the Philippines is an established global player in the coconut and banana trade. Another area of interest would be global shipping as Filipinos have a large presence as sailors, and when Vizhinjam Port finally goes online and Trivandrum becomes a crew change hub, that will be an added layer of cooperation that Kerala can plan for. Unlike other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines also has the advantage of an English-speaking population, and Kerala companies should have no problem in establishing bases there. 

Oceans Eleven gadget is no more a fiction

Some state security forces possess some of the potent hacking power and Israel, which gives top priority for defence, boasts some of the cutting-edge technological weapons, as the Pegasus snooping controversy revealed. The latest addition to their arsenal is technology called Toka which allows the user locate and hack into security cameras and even alter recordings without leaving any trace. Reporting this, the Haartez newspaper said the private company partially owned by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak is regulated by the Israeli Defence Ministry but will not reveal who its clients are. The same way Pegasus software, that can hack into mobile phones, is sold by Israel. The report says such capabilities were fiction when it appeared in 2001 Oceans Eleven movie. However it is a reality now.

Back to the school for political leaders

Why is 82-year-old Don Bayer, a former car salesman turned economist, skipping out on his AI classes at Virginia's George Mason University? Oh, no big deal, he just has a little side gig: as the state's elected representative to the US Congress. But seriously, Bayer is trying to keep up with the times and bring some cutting-edge knowledge to his legislative work. Not a bad idea. Wonder if our political leaders could do the same. But they might want to steer clear of our highly politicised college campus. Instead, maybe Kerala should arrange a special crash course on the latest tech and make it mandatory for all legislators. Oh, only if wishes were horses...