THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Prominent figures in the Indian IT and telecommunications industry have expressed great faith in the potential of the country's first telecom innovation hub being set up in the state.

The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board ( NSTEDB) under the Union department of science and technology recently announced the setting up of the innovation hub in association with Technopark and MobME Wireless Solutions. The hub being set up in Kochi will become operational in January 2012.

Infosys co-founder and co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, who has agreed to take up the role of the chief mentor of the hub, said it would be a milestone in the development of entrepreneurship culture in Kerala.

``We need many more startups to be created in new technology areas - areas that will be the drivers of economic growth and job creation in the 21st century. To create successful small and medium enterprises from start-ups requires the right support ecosystem. The TBI will provide the same," he said.

The telecom innovation hub aims to create a vibrant ecosystem for start-ups to create breakthrough technologies for the global telecommunications industry. The hub will focus primarily on student startups from college campuses and will be modeled on technology incubators in the Silicon Valley. It aims to incubate 1,000 product startups over 10 years and start the search for a billion dollar company from a college campus by the turn of this decade.

Congratulating the new initiative, NASSCOM president Som Mittal said, "India is on a progressive growth path and one of the most potent factors contributing to this is the SME segment. We, at NASSCOM are committed to enhancing their global competitiveness by creating newer platforms for their growth and development. In this endeavour NASSCOM has identified three clear agendas - focusing on the priority to the SME segment, catalyzing the 'IT for India' momentum by providing them with a platform to drive their business and building relevant skills amongst the youths to create future entrepreneurs. We are optimistic that the telecom incubator would help create global innovators of tomorrow from India."

Rajan Mathew, director-general of Cellular Operators Association of India, termed the hub as an important milestone in India's journey towards grooming young intellectual and entrepreneurial talents as world class leaders, especially in the telecom space.

``We have already established ourselves as the second largest telecom market in the world. COAI, along with our members who are leaders in the mobile communications industry, look forward to supporting this initiative by providing the needed support, mentoring and encouragement to our budding talent," he said.