Kerala Ministers received investment proposals from US

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Ministers for Industry and Tourism, Mr Elamaram Kareem and Mr Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who are on a visit to the US along with a high-level official delegation, have received proposals for investment in various sectors in the State.

The team had one-on-one meetings in Silicon Valley with companies in the fields of biotechnology, alternative sources of energy, venture capital fund and IT software and hardware, according to an official statement.

Infinite Solutions Inc, a company engaged in providing complete solutions in the area of solar energy, proposed to invest in Kerala for installation of a system, which includes deployment of solar energy panels on private and public buildings and to connect them to the electricity grid.

Under the system, the solar energy generated in daytime is used in the buildings for their requirement and the surplus energy is fed into the grid by a process called ‘reverse metering’. Such a system is widely used in California, says the statement.

The delegation also visited a biotechnology company, Solazyme, engaged in extracting oil out of algae, which is used in a number of applications, including as a fuel.

The company, a start-up firm, is looking for setting up a pilot project in a developing country where the feedstock, algae, is available in adequate quantity and the delegation discussed the possibilities of getting the project set up in Kerala.

The team had talks with another biotechnology company, Agility Bio, and a venture capital fund set up for investing in life sciences projects in India. It was pointed out at the meeting that Kerala had a number of strengths for attracting biotechnology companies, which include the presence of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram, ready availability of quality manpower and the initiatives to set up a Biotechnology Park by the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinra) and a Life Sciences Park by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.

In the tourism sector, the delegation held talks with representatives of Geographic Expedition, a major tour operator, about promotion of Kerala Tourism in the west coast market of the US, the statement said.