Kerala will house the country’s first UN Technology Innovation Lab that will help the state government design programmes to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN.

The state government will soon join hands with the Office of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of the UN for the purpose. The Kerala Startup Mission will pilot the initiative.

Water, sanitation, mobility and agriculture are the areas the state government has identified as areas best suited for work by the Innovation Lab.

Startups based in Kerala will work closely with the Innovation Lab to build products to address issues in these sectors, an official spokesman said.

This would but also facilitate collaboration with other UN member-states experiencing similar issues, he added.

The Kerala Startup Mission and UN Technology Innovations Lab organised an ideation workshop here on Wednesday to discuss the various sustainable development projects the State can initiate.

IT Secretary M Sivasankar introduced the event to the participants. Ozzeir Khan, Chief of ICT Business Relations; Premnath Nair, Head of Operations; and Omar Mohsine, Public-Private Partnership Coordinator, represented the UN.

Subrato Basu, Vice-President, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Gartner Research Board, who is driving the project in Kerala, was also present.

The UN aims to support member-states to promote innovation by creating a permanent place where experts from the UN, academia, private sector and representatives of member states come together to share knowledge, determine best practices and solve problems.

This would serve as a resource centre designed with an intent to train, host, and implement models to help memberstates progress towards achieving the SDGs.

According to Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission, the opportunity to work with the UN will give local startups a lot of avenues for learning and exposure.