RIM to set up innovation zone in Kochi to motivate young Indians
The manufacturers of BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIM), will open an
innovation zone for BlackBerry technologies with a view to motivating
young Indian entrepreneurs.
'Rubus Labs' will be opened at
Startup Village here in the presence of senior officials of BlackBerry,
including its global vice-president Alec Saunders and India managing director Sunil Dutt.
It is for the first time that RIM is setting up such an innovation zone
in the Asia-Pacific region and Kerala has been selected to be part of
this momentous collaboration that would ignite the imagination of
students, potential entrepreneurs and tech-savvy people.
Sijo
Kuruvilla George, CEO of Startup Village, said the village would be the
powerhouse of the future telecom technology revolution in the country by
incubating over 1,000 startups over the next decade and transform
Kerala into 'Silicon Coast'.
"RIM, the global game-changer in
the mobile industry, will give pre-launch access to its latest devices
and operating systems, apart from technological assistance. Rubus Labs
will host regular activities like BlackBerry Hackathons and Bar Camps,
besides training sessions for student entrepreneurs. The lab will also
be open to school students to expose them to innovative technologies,"
said George.
As an alliance partner, Startup Village would get
stock devices of the BlackBerry family, including handsets and
playbooks, from RIM. The partnership will also facilitate Startup
Village to work with BlackBerry partner funds to co-invest in the
startup firms.
Startup Village was set up jointly by the
National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (
NSTEDB) under the Department of Science and Technology ( DST) of the
central government and the Kerala government-run Technopark, in
collaboration with MobME Wireless.
