The Telangana State Innovation Cell announced the first cohort of six innovation fellows who, as part of the one-year programme, would work with the government towards building an innovation-driven economy in the State.
Describing the programme as a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao said the Innovation Cell’s goal was to make “Telangana a land of innovators, just like Gujarat is known as a land of businessmen”. “I hope this will result in creating at least one innovator in each family,” a release from the Minister’s office said.
The Innovation Cell has invited several partners, including Ashoka Innovators for the Public, an NGO, to build a culture of change-making in the State. According to the release, a few projects selected have been working with schools to promote a culture of innovative thinking, kick-start innovation and entrepreneurship activity at district level, promote start-up incubators, create mentor ecosystem and promote grass-root innovators among others.
IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said the progress of the first cohort would be studied over the next few months to refine the programme in future.
Those selected are serial entrepreneur Meraj Faheem hailing from Mahabubnagar who wants to promote Telangana as a destination for technology education tourism; Sri Nikitha, a metallurgical and materials engineer from IIT-Kharagpur who wants to build a strong ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in Tier-II and Tier-III towns in Telangana; Tarun Davuluri, who is from Khammam and founder of Impact (youth) Fest; and Spoorthi Madhavaram, who is from Karimnagar and a lawyer seeking to building a strong mentor ecosystem in Telangana.
Prasad Boominathan and Simran Mehdiratta, other two selected for the programme, are from Tamil Nadu and Delhi respectively. The Telangana State Innovation Cell was set up in 2017 to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the State, innovation in government departments and organisations and to build a culture of innovation from early on (school stage).
