Zoho’s Kottarakkara Model promises a lot

Zoho Corporation, the Chennai-based multinational tech giant, marked a new milestone last week with the launch of its AI and robotics R&D centre at its 17-month-old facility in Kottarakkara. The centre, housed in the 20,000 sq ft building at the company’s newly built 4.5-acre campus perched atop a hillock in the Neduvathur grama panchayat, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on 2 July 2025.

Zoho’s Kottarakkara campus is the realisation of a shared vision – shaped by two individuals and a government. The individuals: Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s billionaire founder, and KN Balagopal, Kerala’s Finance Minister. The government: the one currently in power in Kerala.

Vembu (57), a native of Thanjavur and a Princeton PhD, is widely known for his steadfast belief in building technology hubs not in metropolitan cities but in India’s villages. After establishing Zoho’s first rural campus in Tenkasi in 2019, Kottarakkara now hosts its second.

He began his career as a wireless engineer with Qualcomm in San Diego before moving to the Bay Area. But unlike many of his peers, Vembu was never enamoured by the American dream – he shunned the coveted green card and resisted the many enticements of life abroad.

Remarkable journey: A fierce nationalist at heart, he felt the strong pull of his homeland. In 1996, he co-founded a software company called AdventNet in Chennai along with his two brothers and Tony Thomas, a technologist from Kerala. In 2009, the company was rebranded as Zoho.

Wearing a mundu and sandals, Vembu defies the stereotype of a modern tech entrepreneur. Often called the “barefoot billionaire,” he ranks as the 39th richest Indian, with a net worth of 5.85 billion US dollars, according to Forbes. In 2004, he launched Zoho Schools to offer vocational software training to students from rural backgrounds – a reflection of his commitment to inclusive, grassroots development.

Zoho, best known for its SaaS-based online office suite, now operates in seven Indian locations, with US headquarters in Austin, Texas. In 2023, the company reported an annual revenue of 8,703 crore rupees and employs over 15,000 people worldwide.

For Balagopal, finding jobs for the youngsters of his rural assembly constituency has been a personal mission, besides his primary job to stabilise the rickety state of Kerala’s economy. After learning about Zoho’s Tenkasi campus, Balagopal visited Vembu and invited him to Kottarakkara.

Dream project: Zoho’s “Kottarakkara model” was born in February last year when the state government’s and the Kerala Startup Mission’s vision to promote a “Work Near Home” culture to create high-end technical jobs in rural areas met with the dreams of Vembu and Balagopal.

“We are committed to elevate Tenkasi and Kottarakkara and also their neighbouring villages to be the richest regions in the country. Our villages have no dearth of talent or commitment,” said Vembu. He insisted that quality of life rather than cost advantage attracts him to invest in villages. Kerala is no longer unfriendly to business, he adds.

About 50 graduates from the IHRD Engineering College, trained by Zoho, have been deployed since last year and 250 more will be recruited soon, according to Vembu. Zoho also announced a partnership with Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) to launch a Deep Tech Product Studio to catalyse collaborative research among startups and research institutions.

Zoho entered into robotics with its acquisition of Asimov Robotics, the Kochi-based deep-tech startup, which develops humanoid robots and was founded by Jayakrishnan T in 2012.

The Zoho venture in Kottarakkara also announced R&D associations with Boson Motors, Vipus Advanced Materials, vTitan, Zentron Labs, Verdant Telemetry & Antenna Systems, Netrasemi, Genrobotics, Energy 24by7, and IIT Bombay. Other than robotics and AI, the centre will also go into clean energy, semiconductors, healthcare tech, and advanced materials.

Bold vision: In his address, Minister Balagopal said Kerala has great potential in the knowledge-based economy. “This initiative is just the beginning. A model like this in Kottarakkara can be replicated across the state. Companies like Zoho aim to train talented rural youth in high-end technologies and generate more employment,” he said.

The idea of replicating the Kottarakkara model fits well in Kerala. It is perhaps the only Indian state that already behaves – socially and economically – like a large, spread-out city.

It has a high population density, strong transport links, near-universal literacy, and a workforce that is mobile and tech-savvy. People routinely travel between towns for education, work and healthcare. With new road and rail networks opening access to different industrial corridors in other southern states, such a well-planned Kerala could potentially become a place which can offer a perfect work-life balance.

This is a refreshing vision as metro Indian cities that rushed to become IT hubs are now creaking under pressure. Take Bangalore, for instance. Once hailed as India’s Silicon Valley, it now groans under the weight of poor planning. What began as a leafy, liveable city has turned into a chaotic sprawl, plagued by water shortages, traffic snarls, and unliveable suburbs.

The National Capital Region (NCR) around Delhi tells a similar story. Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad – all satellite cities of promise – now suffer from fragmented governance, pollution, and deep inequality. They have Metro lines and expressways, but lack coherent planning. One part builds tech parks, another fights for water.

Balanced future: The Kottarakkara model could offer an alternative: by bringing digital jobs and training to where people live, rather than forcing migration into already-congested cities. Create a statewide ecosystem where any young person from Kulanada, Chittur, or Koyilandy can access the same opportunities as someone in Cochin or Trivandrum.

But this vision won’t realise itself. There is a lot of groundwork to be done. Kerala needs to strengthen public transport between districts, invest in clean energy and water systems while implementing effective waste management across the state.

It requires political will, institutional collaboration, and above all, the maturity to rise above petty political rivalries. Too often, urban projects in Kerala are treated as trophies for local constituencies – be it an airport or an IT park. Planning remains stuck in government departments that operate in silos, and development is viewed through narrow electoral lenses.

More importantly, society itself must demand better: not just infrastructure and jobs, but foresight for a balanced development. It needs a state-level urban planning authority, a shared mobility framework, and bold coordination between government, civil society, and private players like Zoho.

The Zoho Centre in Kottarakkara may look like just another tech office from the outside. But if it succeeds, the “Kottarakkara model” could be more than a local success – it could be the blueprint for a new way forward for Kerala.

(Additional inputs by Hari Kumar)

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