It would indeed be surprising to many that a Communist leader’s daughter is an entrepreneur, and that too in the IT sector. One would wonder how the “Lal Salaam” trade union culture and the corporate culture would gel.

Kerala state secretary of CPI (M) Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Thayikkandiyil Veena, after completing a ten year long career in the information technology (IT) sector, has now started an IT company of her own. No prizes for guessing, it’s not in “red” Kerala!

The mobility and cloud solution company- Exalogic- is based in Bengaluru. Started a few months ago, it has begun with four employees and is in the process of expansion. T Veena had worked for 8 years in Oracle and then was the CEO of RP Techsoft, a company owned by Malayali NRI Ravi Pillai in Thiruvananthapuram. Veena seems to have moved away from the mould, even as the Communist in Kerala announced that IT sector needed trade unions.

After completing its three day long state council in Kottayam on September 22, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) had announced that the IT sector needed trade unions.

Whilst the Congress party led Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and businessmen in the state had expressed worry over this demand, many CPI(M) members had completely backed it.