By Express News Service KOCHI: Kerala will soon launch a design policy to promote sustainable infrastructure which employs innovative designs for habitats and smart cities, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while speaking at the valedictory session of the second edition of the Kochi Design Week (KDW) here on Saturday. The state government is also planning to scale up the upcoming editions of Kerala Design Festival’ by integrating multiple events. “Kerala Tourism can market future editions of KDW globally and it will inspire the creative community to travel to Kerala,” said Vijayan. To transform Kerala into a creative hub, the government will soon build a design-centric Centre of Excellence in Kochi. “The platform will offer hardware and software facilities, fablabs and prototyping facilities besides talent-grooming and community development initiatives for creative minds,” he said. The Chief Minister reiterated that his government would work with agencies like Kerala Startup Mission to assess the areas which require stronger focus in Rebuild Kerala Mission. “We will come up with necessary interventions to boost entrepreneurship, skilling and other related areas in designing,” he said.CM described KDW as a unique event in Kerala’s industrial history, where scholars in a range of disciplines came together to celebrate design. “The state can play a lead role in the field as many MNCs across the country and abroad have Malayalis as decision-makers in the creative or design domain,” said Vijayan. With back-to-back calamities in the past two monsoon seasons, the CM pointed to the need to avert a repeat of such a tragedy. “Given that the administration is striving to rebuild Kerala into a better, more resilient and environment-friendly place, creative design experiences could quicken up the mission,” he said. Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, Chief Secretary Tom Jose, IT Secretary M Sivasankar and KDW Special Officer Arun Balachandran spoke on the occasion. Earlier, the CM gave away awards to the winner of a ‘Kerala Design Challenge’ contest held by International School of Creative Arts. Krishna Sunil, a student of the AFD Institute in Kochi, won the cash prize of C25,000. Four runners up won a collective purse of C20,000. Another contest, titled ‘Tagline’, conducted as part of KDW, too, had its results declared at the function. Eden gave away the awards to 10 top winners who won C10,000 each.

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