Since its formation, Telangana, on account of its business-friendly and tech-supportive policies, has emerged as a leader in the country in the Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services sector.
The biggest thrust to the IT sector, in general, and startups, in particular, came in January this year when Telangana threw open T-Hub 2.0, a massive 10-floor facility in Nanakramguda, that can accommodate 2,000 startups. Touted as the world’s largest innovation centre, it was inaugurated by Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao.
The massive facility marks what could be termed the second chapter in Telangana’s successful journey to become a leader in nurturing and fostering a robust and competitive startup ecosystem. According to Mr.Rao, who spoke at the inauguration, T-Hub was founded to attract talent from across the country and has impacted about 2,000 entrepreneurs and drew funding of $1.19 billion. It has engaged with scores of corporates and collaborated with government entities and agencies in its endeavour to provide support to startups and entrepreneurs.
In its attempt to bring about inclusion in the startup ecosystem, the Telangana government launched WE-Hub, which connects women entrepreneurs with the required connections, and resources. The incubator celebrated its fifth anniversary in March this year, and has, so far, incubated over 3,000 startups and SMEs by women founders, raised over €₹80 crore, and created nearly 3,000 jobs. The State-backed facility also runs programmes such as Girls in STEM, an initiative for students aged between 13 and 17 years, to encourage STEM education, WE Alpha, a programme for students over 18 years and covers areas such as innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. WE-Hub was engaged in consultative work for the government such as in implementing the Dalit Bandhu scheme.
In another first, IT Minister K.T.Rama Rao in May announced the State’s robotics framework, an ambitious move to create a robust robotics ecosystem. Telangana also set up a nodal agency – Telangana Robotics Innovation Centre — to act as a liaison. It is likely to tackle challenges in its quest to be a leader in this ecosystem and seek to overcome issues such as prototyping and testing facilities, establishing linkages with fields such as Artificial Intelligence, and geospatial technology, and dealing with intellectual property issues.
In its efforts to remain a leader in the country, Telangana on September 11, 2021, became the first State in India to successfully deliver vaccines using drones. Its ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project entailed Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone flight delivering a payload in Vikarabad, a town over 70 km from the city. The drone flew a distance of 3 km, from the Vikarabad Police Parade Ground to a healthcare facility, to deliver the payload.
