Last member of core team leaves Technopark

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: "I joined Technopark when my second daughter Rasmi was born in 1990. Now I step down when she is all set to get married in June. I witnessed the growth of Technopark like a daughter," said M Vasudevan, senior business development manager of Technopark, who stepped down on Tuesday. Vasudevan was the only remaining employee in the five-member core team which was instrumental in setting up one of the largest IT parks in the country.
Now, at a time when Technopark employs 50,000 individuals directly and over 2,00,000 indirectly, Vasudevan is relieved that his efforts have been fruitful. "Technopark began in 1990 as an Electronic Technology Park as IT was not in the scene then. The detailed project report submitted by TCS said Technopark could provide a maximum of 5,000 jobs. But things changed with the entry of IT," Vasudevan said.
The core team included founding CEO G Vijayaraghavan, K G Satish Kumar, K Ramachandran, K C Chandrashekharan Nair and M Vasudevan. Technopark has brought about a change in the work culture of the state, where hartals used to be common. Interestingly, the team took a purposeful decision in the initial days not to disrupt work on hartal days. "In the first year, a conference of the International Association of Science Parks was held at Technopark. A hartal was announced on day two of the conference. We shifted the venue to Mascot Hotel where most delegates were staying. We transported others in our personal vehicles, including scooter. Since then, the working of Technopark has remained uninterrupted. Even IT parks in Bangalore had been affected for several days when Veerappan abducted actor Rajkumar, but we have no such history. Police, too, provided support by offering pilot and escort for vehicles on such days," he said.
Vasudevan said Technopark was able to attract small IT firms from European countries initially by ensuring three integral factors - modern office space, uninterrupted power supply and data connectivity. "One of our major achievements in the initial days was getting consent from the Centre to set up a satellite earth station on the campus to provide data connectivity," he said.
The early days also saw a crisis in terms of manpower. "Though there were several engineering graduates, there was a shortage of middle-level managers. We had to convince experienced managers to come to Technopark," he said, adding with a smile that he had to do a variety of 'services' including obtaining admission for their kids in schools.