CM Lauds Knowledge Industry Initiative to Make Kerala Talent Capital

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said the industry-enabled digital platform MuLearn, which offers students free access to mentors in the industry, can play a major role in making Kerala the talent capital of the country, in collaboration with the state government.

The Chief Minister was inaugurating ‘Permute 2025,’ one of India’s largest skilling festivals, organized by GTECH MuLearn, aimed at making Kerala the country’s talent capital for the knowledge industry.

Noting that MuLearn, an initiative of the Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), is a milestone in that direction, Vijayan said good ideas and innovations generated by the initiative can be implemented after discussions.

Vijayan also launched MuLearn 4.0 at the function held at the Tagore Theatre here.

Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar, addressed the event through video-conferencing. VK Mathews, Chairman of GTECH and Founder & Executive Chairman of IBS Software, was also present.

GTECH comprises of over 250 companies employing more than 80 percent of the professionals in the state.

Welcoming more ideas and discussions, Vijayan said ‘Permute 2025’ can make the right intervention in identifying talents and fostering innovative projects.

In the last nine years, around 6,200 startups took off in the state and through this, an investment of Rs 5,800 crore came to the sector and 60,000 job opportunities were created, he said.

“Today, Kerala is one of the best startup-friendly states in country. The state became the top performer in the Startup Ranking 2022. As per the Global Startup Ecosystem Report, Kerala became first in the Asia in Affordable Talent Ranking. During 2021-23, our startup ecosystem growth was 254 percent whereas the global average was 46 percent. It was due to the effective intervention of the government in the sector,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

Holding that GTECH can foster innovation and help youngsters in the state’s vibrant ecosystem, he said a deeptech ecosystem will be developed in the state.

Vijayan highlighted the need for developing the manufacturing sector apart from service-based industries in Kerala. He lauded the organizers for giving prominence to the state’s ‘Drug-free Kerala’ campaign in ‘Permute 2025,’ which saw convergence around 2000 students.

On the occasion, the Chief Minister presented the ‘2 Million Karma Points Milestone Award’ to Mar Baselios College of Engineering And Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and St. Joseph College of Engineering and Technology, Pala. The award is for the institutions that reach 2-million Karma Points mark, which is the new yardstick of skilling.

Syam Kumar S S received the honour from the Chief Minister for the World Record of being the youngest to perform a solo sky-dive from the highest altitude with a prosthetic leg while Mr Govind S B received the Top 100 Coder Award.

Setting the context of the event, Mathews said the purpose of ‘Permute 2025’ is to ensure that ample talent pool is available for the accelerated growth of IT and ITes in the state. The purpose of MuLearn is to bridge the gap between industry and academia.

“Last year, globally, technology sector’s growth was $5.2 trillion and it is expected to grow about 10 percent this year to become $5.9 trillion. This is substantially huge. This year, the country’s IT industry is expected to grow $282 billion and next year it is projected to become about $300 billion,” he revealed.

According to him, growing deglobalisation tendency and uncertainties linked to artificial intelligence (AI) are the major challenges in future.

“As per a report by McKinsey, productivity impact of Gen AI will be four percent of the world’s GDP. Most of it is going to happen in distinct areas like customer interaction, sales & marketing, R&D and software engineering,” Mathews said. The GTECH Chairman noted that job and skill requirement is going to shift to 25-35 percent in five years driven by these changes.

“At MuLearn, we will be optimizing deployment of talent by providing mentoring and training on specific industries. It is going to be the most sought-after platform for corporate,” he added.

In his presentation on MuLearn 4.0, Deepu S Nath, Chief Volunteer, MuLearn and MD, FAYA, said by standing along with academic system, MuLearn helps students get access to mentors.

Calling for a change in the wrong perception about new generation and equip them for unleashing their talent, Shri Nath said of the 200 winners in Meta’s Global Hackathon, 27 of them were MuLearn students.

P V Unnikrishnan, Member Secretary, K-DISC; Sreekumar V, Centre Head, Tata Elxsi, and Secretary, GTECH; Dr. Karthik Padmanabhan Developer Relations, Google; Anoop P Ambika CEO, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM); Dr K Sivaprasad, Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU); and Sindhu Pillai, Convener, ATFG, GTECH, also spoke.

The latest version of MuLearn, a platform for empowering youth, has the potential to be a game changer in improving students skill sets for next generation jobs. MuLearn will bring together academia, industry, skilling agencies, students and working professionals to create a future-ready talent bank in the state.

‘Permute 2025’ also addressed some of the most pressing challenges in education like reimagining curriculum for future readiness, fostering experiential learning, strengthening global industry collaboration, enabling adaptive education models, and enhancing digital and technological fluency.

Over 2,000 delegates, including government officials, top skilling agencies, industry leaders, and representatives of colleges attended. The students’ expo featuring their innovations was one of the attractions of the one-day event.