Google is listening to the App Developer Community of Kerala and to those who are capable of addressing some of the real problems that the Indian IT industry is facing, a top Google official said here on Wednesday.Google India MD and Vice President Southeast Asia Rajan Anandan said this while inaugurating the Mobile 10X Incubation Centre at a 12,500 sq ft space at the Cyberpark here in Kozhikode.Mobile 10X is an Indian Internet Industry backed programme spearheaded by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to support app developers/app entrepreneurs to improve the quality of their apps.While the state owned IT park in the state capital is called TechnoPark, the one at Kochi is called InfoPark and the recently launched one at Kozhikode is known as CyberPark.
"The objective of the incubation hub is to help entrepreneurs who are building mobile first products and services. The launch of Mobile 10X in Kerala will enable affordable access, affordable devices, local language friendly and locally relevant products and services," said Saji Gopinath, CEO Kerala Start-up Mission.The Centre will offer co-working, training, mentoring, design and testing labs, monetisation zone, industry and investor's connect to the Digital Start-ups of the state with structure programmes enabling Cyberpark to be a Centre of Excellence in App Development."India today has over 425 million Internet users, 300 million mobile Internet users of which 160 million are connected to Smartphones. Statistics project that the number of Internet users would increase to 650 million by 2020. "Setting up of Mobile 10X in Kerala will attract large number of domestic and multinational companies and lead to direct employment opportunities," said M. Sivasankar, IT secretary of Kerala.