India’s first Centre of Excellence (CoE) for gaming, VFX, computer vision and AI was opened here on Monday.
Set up by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and backed by Telangana government, IMAGE is the first Incubation centre for companies focused on IP in gaming, VFX, computer vision and AI.
STPI-IMAGE also signed MoU with five partners — Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association (TVAGA), Hyderabad Angels, HYSEA, IIIT-Hyderabad and TiE — with an objective to nurture and promote startups and budding entrepreneurs by offering mentoring, technology support, infrastructure like plug and play incubation, Mocap, CVAI labs and funding.
₹20-crore investment
The 10,000-sq.ft. CoE inside the existing STPI facility targets incubation of 25 to 30 startups annually for the next five years. A total investment of ₹20 crore would be made over a period of five years for the CoE in addition to existing infrastructure in the STPI facility.
Industries and IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, who was the chief guest for the soft launch, said it was matter of great satisfaction that STPI was focusing on a gaming and VFX CoE. If it was not for STPI some 25 years ago, the IT industry would not have developed in Hyderabad, he said. Now STPI was pushing Indian IT industry into product development and setting up CoEs across the country for different verticals.
Mr. Ranjan said Hyderabad was the appropriate choice for the CoE on gaming and it could become the go-to destination for every one in this area. “We have a strong eco-system and the city hosts world-leading gaming companies and events of global scale. India’s biggest IMAGE towers will soon open in Hyderabad,” he said.
Hyderabad top choice
STPI director general Omkar Rai said Hyderabad was a natural choice to set up the IMAGE CoE due to its inherent industry strengths. The CoI would bring a paradigm shift in revving up research and innovation in gaming,VFX, computer vision and AI in collaboration with tech partners, industry, investors, industry associations and government, and will bolster indigenous product development and growth of tech entrepreneurship in the country, he explained.
Mr. Rai said this was the seventh CoE that was set up among the domain specific CoEs set up so far across the country to facilitate startups of the day to get necessary support. Originally, the plan was to set up eight CoEs, but now 21 CoEs would be set up and the number could go up to 28 with ₹600 crore expenditure coming from all the stakeholders including the State and Centre. Overall, 1,000 veteran industry leaders of 28 CoEs would mentor close to 2,000 startups.
Govt. as enabler
Chief mentor of the CoE, Shashi Reddy said Hyderabad like Bay Area, would help in grooming innovative ideas and most importantly, the government was playing the role of enabler leaving the main job of development to industry leaders.
HYSEA COO Srinivas Rao said the association would provide seed funding, strategy guidance and market access besides helping the startups on matters related to product definition.
IIIT-Hyderabad professor Ramesh Loganathan said the opportunities were huge for startups using computer vision and AI to solve different problems for different industries.
