Grand challenge brings overnight fame to Kerala IT firm

An IT firm based at a small town in the coastal district of Alappuzha in Kerala has shot to fame overnight by emerging as winners of the Centre's grand challenge for developing video conference solution.

VConSol, the application developed by the startup firm Techgentsia Software Technologies, emerged as the winner in Centre's the contest which saw a participation of close to 2,000 contestants. Capacity to handle more participants at a time and compatibility with many platforms were the highlights of VConSol.

Joy Sebastian, who is the founder CEO of the firm, has been flooded with congratulatory messages since Thursday after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced the award that carries financial support of Rs 1 crore with additional Rs 10 lakhs for operation and maintenance for next three years. The centre also decided to use the application for government's video conferencing.

Joy, who is an MCA holder, said that after clearing the initial rounds of the contest the confidence level of the firm went up. The teamwork of Techgentsia indeed made it happen, said Joy who is a native of the district. Most of the employees of the firm were also from the district.

Techgentsia was set up in 2009 and it has been focusing on research and development in real-time communication.