By CEOs of more than 50 IT companies joined 250 fellow runners at a marathon aimed at imparting momentum to the state government’s ‘No to Drugs’ campaign, as the industry body of IT companies in Kerala organized a promotional event today as a prelude to the GTech Marathon at Thiruvananthapuram next month.
The five-km run, covering Government Cyberpark and UL Cyberpark in the city, was organised by the Group of Technology Companies (GTech).
The weekend marathon was flagged off by UL Cyberpark COO Kishor Kumar T.K., Cyberpark General Manager Vivek Nair, Tata Elxsi (Kozhikode) Centre Head Sharath M Nair,British High Commission in India Sector Lead (Technology) Sijoy Thomas Nityanand Kamath, President, Malabar Chamber of Commerce and MD, Ace Group of Companies, M A Mehaboob, Immediate Past President & Adviser, Malabar Chamber of Commerce and MD, Secura Developers Pvt. Ltd and Ajayan K Anat, Chairman, Calicut Innovation & Technology Initiative (CITI 2.0).
The campaign seeks to sensitize the public about the disturbing trend of substance abuse, according to Gtech chairman V K Mathews. “Use of drugs causes unimaginable damage to society. Like-minded and responsible people must come out in unison with a loud message of ‘No to Drugs’ and ‘Yes to Fitness’,” he said. “We need to convert campaigns like this into a mass public movement to make Kerala drug-free.”
Present at the event were GTECH Executive Committee members Venkatesh Thyagarajan (who is CEO of Cabot Solutions), Tony Joseph (also Kennedys IQ CEO) and Arun Sreedharan (CEO of Zoondia), besides GTech Kerala Marathon 2025 Race Director Rony Sebastian (Founder & CEO of Softnotions Technologies).
The third edition of the main GTech Marathon in the state capital on February 9 is expected to have 7,500 runners from diverse backgrounds, regardless of age, geography, gender or fitness levels. It will feature three categories of runs: half-marathon (21.1 km), 10 km, Fun Run (3 km–5 km), challenging participants to push their limits while supporting an important cause.
