GTECH to Organize Marathon to Raise Awareness of Drug Abuse
Trivandrum, 01 November 2024: Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), the industry body of IT companies in Kerala, is organizing the 3rd edition of the GTECH Kerala Marathon on Sunday, February 9th, 2025, at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. More than 7,500 runners are expected to participate, making this one of the biggest and most high-profile marathons in Kerala. IT professionals, government employees, students from schools & colleges, defense personnel, corporate members & general public are expected to turn out in large numbers for the marathon. The purpose of the marathon is to create increased public awareness about the prevalence of drug abuse in Kerala and its ill effects, especially among the youth. This will complement the ‘Drugs Free Kerala’ campaign rolled out by the State Government.
“This is a coming together of more than one lakh IT professionals of Kerala for a common cause. As a responsible community, these professionals, under the aegis of the industry body GTECH, is committed to take up emerging social issues that confront our state. The marathon is a reflection of this commitment. In the 3rd edition, held at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, we continue with the theme ‘Say No to Drugs.’. We will roll out a series of people centric awareness campaigns leading up to the marathon in select educational institutions and all the IT parks of the state to sensitize the youth the need to make Kerala narcotic free” said Shri VK Mathews, Chairman of GTECH
The second edition held in Cochin saw over 6,000 runners participate in three categories of timed runs: 3km, 10km, and 21km.
GTECH represents over 300 IT companies that comprise 80% of the IT employees in the state. All major companies —TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, IBS Software, Tata Elxsi, Quest, Allianz, UST, EY—as well as medium and small companies across Technopark in Trivandrum, Infopark in Cochin, and Cyberpark in Calicut are part of GTECH.