Startup Village of Kochi has become the second place in the world, after Kansas City of United States to introduce 1 Gbps connectivity.

By switching on the trend-setting connectivity within a few days after the leading US tech incubator had introduced the same, Startup Village has thus also taken a major leap forward to emerge as the largest telecom incubator in the world.

The facility was formally introduced on November 17 by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, giving a shot in the arm to Startup Village for its mission to churn out world-class startups from Indian campuses.

``We are not behind Silicon Valley. Our youngsters also are privy to the best available connectivity,’’ said Startup Village chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar in a statement.

``Startup Village aims to build the elements of a world class tech ecosystem to realize the dream of a Silicon Coast in India. The vision at this grandiose scale is driven by one of India's most successful IT entrepreneurs, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and powered by Dept of Science and Technology, Govt of India.

The Startup Village at Kochi is the first location of this national pilot, which would be replicated to other parts of India in the coming months,’’ he said.

``Apart from 100% teledensity and literacy, the submarine landing station at Kochi creates a perfect backdrop to try this ambitious pilot to effectively change the tech startup policies in India to be at par with Silicon Valley,’’ he said.

Internet giant Google launched 1Gbps (1000 mbps) at Startup Village, Kansas City, a leading tech incubator in US, culminating a two-year anticipation by the tech world, as part of the Google Fiber Network. The Google Fiber is rated as 100 times faster than the average American broadband speed.

India on its part was hoping to introduce the same by the mid 2013, with some companies activity moving to introduce it for the public use. But Kochi, which is a crucial as gateway of two submarine cables in the country, has thus became first city in the country to experience gigabit connectivity. 

``The new connectivity comes as a milestone in our efforts to ensure the most conducive atmosphere of growth for the increasing number of incubatees. World-class infrastructure facilities will prompt the young companies to perform and meet the global competition,’’ said Startup Village CEO Sijo George Kuvilla.

1 Gbps connectivity coincided with the physical expansion of Startup Village, giving a big boost to its ambitious scout for game-changing campus companies from India. It got an additional space of 10,000 sq ft, taking the total available space to 15,000 sq ft at the KINFRA Hi-Tech Park at Kalamassery.

Startup village which began functioning in April this year as a joint initiative between the Department of Science and Technology under the Government of India, Technopark Trivandrum and MobME Wireless.

In another fillip to Startup Village, Kerala also became the first state to launch the student Entrepreneruship policy to encourage over 2.5lac students in engineering and polytechnics to be entreprenuers by giving them 20% attendance and 4% grace marks.