Telangana inks MoU to set up incubation hub in Hyderabad

The Telangana government Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, Indian School of Business (ISB) and NALSAR University of Law to create an incubation hub.

Coming up on 80,000 square feet at IIIT campus, it will be India's biggest incubation hub and can accommodate 700 to 800 technology startups.

The first phase of T-Hub, as the incubation centre will be known, is expected to be ready in four months, said state Information Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao.

He said the state government would allocate Rs.20 crore for the first phase of the incubation hub. In the second phase, the T-Hub will have its standalone facility of over three lakh sft.

ISB would provide business mentoring, IIIT technology mentoring while NALSAR would help in intellectual property and related areas. ISB dean Ajit Rangnekar will head the incubation hub.

The minister said it would be incubation of incubators as it would bring on one platform startup initiatives of various institutes, universities and organisations like Nasscom.

To mark 100 days of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, the department of information technology also announced Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge (TASK). A joint initiative of industry and educational institutes, it will focus on producing industry-ready engineers.

It also announced creating two electronic manufacturing clusters in Hyderabad. The minister said a UK-based company, which is into manufacturing of water testing equipment, has come forward to set up its unit, its first in Asia.

Ajit Rangnekar, IIIT director P.J. Narayana, NALSAR vice-chancellor Faizan Mustafa, Nasscom vice-chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy were present on the occasion.

Mohan Reddy, who is also executive chairman of Cyient, announced two initiatives from Cyient Foundation, the CSR arm of leading engineering services company.

Under the first initiative aimed at making engineers more employable, it will train over 3,500 students from 19 tier-II colleges in Telangana.

The second initiative National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) aims to empower neighbourhood communities with digital literacy and facilitate use of digitally enabled citizen services.