BlackBerry Innovation Zone launched

KOCHI: BlackBerry technology will be within arms reach for entrepreneurs in India with the launch of BlackBerry Innovation Zone by Research in Motion (RIM) at the Startup Village, Kinfra Park, Kalamassery. The zone will be the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region.“We are excited to partner with the Startup Village to set up our first Innovation Zone in India. The zone in Rubus Labs is designed to foster a spirit of innovation in the minds of young entrepreneurs and students in India,” said Alec Sauders, vice-president, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development, RIM. They can get access to the latest BlackBerry products and technical know-how. Most of the world’s mobile software industries will come from India in three to five years. It will also produce tonnes of software for export. BlackBerry will be recruiting a large number of software developers in its transition from Blackberry 7 to BlackBerry 10,” he said.Rubus Labs will host regular developer activities such as BlackBerry Hackathons and Bar Camps. Training sessions will be conducted across the 126 engineering colleges in Kerala under the BlackBerry BASE programme by leveraging the campus outreach network of Startup Village. The objective of the partnership with RIM is to motivate young minds by making RIM’s mobile technology and training within reach, said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Board of Governors chairman, Startup Village.Rubus Labs will expose school students to smartphone and the immense possibilities of mobile technology, said Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village.“We look forward to the outstanding ideas that will originate from here to meet the challenges of the ever changing needs of customers,” said Sunil Dutt, CEO, RIM India.Dr H K Mittal, head of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), and Nicolas, Acting Consul-General and Senior Trade Commissioner at the Consulate-General of Government of Canada, said that Kerala is leading in innovation for which Technopark has been instrumental and lauded private-public partnership in incubator programmes. Nicolas stressed on the need for Indo-Canadian partnership in knowledge economy. Saplings were planted to mark the launch of the BlackBerry Innovation Zone.