As many as 18 educational institutions in the district have expressed interest in joining the Campus Industrial Park programme initiated by the State government to address the issue of insufficient space for industrial use, to encourage better coordination between institutions of higher education and industry, and to provide sufficient space for start-ups and students’ internship programmes.
Industries department sources said the interest generated by the programme across the State was similar to that of Ernakulam as the departments of Industries and Higher Education are jointly working out the modality to operationalise the programme. It is expected that the Department of Higher Education will come out with a draft, which will trigger wider discussions to finally roll out the programme.
Sources said many educational institutions had sufficient space for the ‘industry on campus’ programme. How to utilise the available space will also depend on the higher education requirement as specified by the departments concerned. It is also expected that it will be possible to speed up the commercialisation of products developed in these industrial spaces through the programme, said the order issued by the government for the Campus Industrial Park Scheme 2024. The order also made it clear that the industrial parks set up thus should be campus-friendly.
