Kerala Business
Can I start business in Kerala
Kerala is the world leader in human development indices having attained enviable progress in all social sectors like health, education and family welfare.
The south-western state has the highest literacy rate, highest life expectancy, least population growth and lowest infant mortality among other notable achievements.
The United Nations and other world bodies have cited Kerala as the role model for other developing countries to emulate.
The skilled manpower coming out of higher education institutes makes Kerala the source of large reservoir of talented labour that can be hired across industrial sectors.
It is to be noted that a variety of quality educational and research institutions in Kerala ensure abundant supply of quality manpower, whatever be the sphere of business activity.
Global links, speedy data transfer
Kerala provides high global connectivity and instant data transfer facilities.
Investment bases like Technopark and IT investment zoneshave an on-campus dedicated satellite earth station offering global information links that are quite inexpensive.
Kerala is one of the only two locations in India where both the optic fibre submarine cables SEA-ME-WE-3 and SAFE converge, giving superb global connectivity at very low rates.
Besides these, Kerala has the highest tele-density and the highest penetration of optic fibre cable in the country.
Vallarpadam in Ernakulam is the country’s first and only international container transhipment terminal.
A 5 million tonne capacity LNG terminal and gas pipeline infrastructure is under construction at Vallarpadam port.
In order to promote the core competency areas of Kerala, dedicated sector-specific industrial parks are rapidly being set up across the state.
These high-tech parks offer walk-in-and-manufacture environments with state-of-the-art infrastructure, thereby enabling a hassle-free start-up for industries in the state.
Besides, Kerala is the only state in the country with a legislature for statutory single window clearance in order to attract investments into the state.
Compared to other locations in the country, Kerala offers low operating costs for start-up in the state.
It is almost as low as 75% in 'walk-in-and-manufacture' environments like the Technopark and Infopark.
Low rentals, power, water and transport tariffs keep operating costs minimal for industrial units located in the state.
Key infrastructure projects
Implementation of the Kerala State Transport Project comprising highway upgradation in two phases of 254 km (phase I) and 326 km (phase II).
Construction of 48 out of 65 rail over bridges approved by the railways for Kerala.
Development of 290 km of roads under various schemes.
The 4.62 km-long Vallarpadam railway bridge, the longest in India. Commissioned in 2010, the bridge connects the Vallarpadam international container terminal to the rest of Railway network.
Initiating the development of the integrated railway coach factory at Kanjikode for which the state government has allotted 426 acres of land.
The work on the coach factory in Palakkad is progressing with the project being taken up as PPP.
Introduced the MEMU (mainline electric multiple unit) trains servicing major railway stations.
Proposed development of airport at Kannur on PPP basis. Three airports operating in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.
Proposed development of the minor ports at Thangassery, Azhikkal and Beypore on PPP basis.
Development of the Rs. 6,000 crore Vizhinjam international deep waterport on PPP basis.
Declaration of the Kollam–Kottapuram stretch of the West Coast Canal along with Champakara and Udyogmandal Canals (total of 205 km) as the National Waterway 3.
Installed power generation capacity of 2,746 MW with public sector accounting for 90% of capacity. Total additional capacity of around 419 MW through ongoing and proposed projects.
Teledensity national: 75.48; Kerala: 105.76. The state has a 15,000-km long OFC (optic fibre cable) chain which connects every one of the 1,000-odd telephone exchanges.
Special economic zones (SEZs):
There are 24 SEZs under various stages of completion in Kerala.
While some of them are specialty products such as Technopark (phase-I, II, III and IV) in Thiruvananthapuram; Kinfra biotechnology park, Kalamasserry; and Infopark, Kochi; some others are multi-products.
The excellent airport and seaport connectivity make doing business in the SEZs in Kerala all the more attractive.
Investment avenues:
The government has identified 26 areas of growth for the Kerala economy.
The selection of the ‘focus areas’ is based on the potential for growth, the presence of enabling factors such as availability of raw material, human resource pool, marketing growth, export opportunities and availability of infrastructure facilities.
While selecting the sector, the government has ensured that they would help enhance the state’s image as a developing knowledge economy.
The government would also ensure that the new investment would in no way harm the clean and green environment the state is popular.