IT Parks-Kerala Launches Survey to Probe Demand for Co-working Spaces

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
With sharing of co-working spaces and work from home becoming the new normal across sectors, IT Parks-Kerala has launched a survey to ascertain the demand and expectations of professionals and organisations as part of its #Move2Kerala campaign, which seeks to position the state as a major global digital hub in the post-COVID era.

The online survey, which addresses the workforce and entrepreneurs, takes into account the growing trend of re-imagining the workspace that began before the upheaval triggered by the pandemic, with establishments recognizing the potential, including economic advantages, of remote working and work from home. The thrust of the #Move2Kerala campaign is to attract companies and mid-senior level talents to Kerala. It will encourage professionals from Kerala scattered around the world to consider moving back to hometown.

Catering to the demands of home-bound professionals and entrepreneurs, the state has plans to create a network of virtual and physical work-near-home co-working spaces.

Earlier this week, Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, during a teleconference with the industry leaders, had assured seamless high-width Internet connection for IT sector employees working from home due to restrictions caused by the pandemic. He also suggested that companies could create “work-sharing benches” to pool their human resources.

“This survey seeks to gauge the interest and scope of co-working spaces in Kerala to facilitate an effective mix of work-near-home and work-from-home for professionals in various co-working spaces being planned by Technopark”, said M Sivasankar,  Principal Secretary, Electronics and IT.

The IT sector of Kerala is set to receive a big boost with the commissioning of Kerala Fibre Optic Network K-Fon by end of this year.

“The Kerala model is already known across the world for being resilient against natural calamities and pandemics, and is considered one of the safest destinations. The working spaces being offered by Kerala are the most ideal and conducive as they lay great emphasis on environmental and sustainable parameters”, said Sasi Pilachery Meethal, CEO, IT Parks.

The demand for co-working space is set to go up substantially with steep increase in number of start-ups, especially in advanced sectors like space technology, robotics, Artificial Intelligence and data analytics.

IT Parks-Kerala comprises Technopark here, Infopark, Kochi and Cyberpark, Kozhikode. The survey is available online at https://bit.ly/2UB2Ezr.