National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned ₹9 crore grant to the Rural Business Centre (RBIC – AgHub) in Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) here.
The sanction letter was handed over to Vice-Chancellor of the University V. Praveen Rao here on Wednesday by Chief General Manager of the apex agricultural development bank in the presence of Minister for IT and Industries K.T. Rama Rao.
According to the university officials, the NABARD grant would be utilised for setting up RBIC by scaling up the AgriHub already established by the university. The RBIC would function in the hub and spoke model with the hub on the campus of the university in Rajendranagar here and its spokes at Vikarabad, Jagtial and Warangal.
The RBIC would provide common infrastructure and services such as technology development assistance, networking and mentoring, funding access, training and development, business support services (entrepreneurship development, marketing, finance and accounting, research, legal, regulatory and others), pre-incubation services, handholding among others to start-ups and businesses.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rama Rao appreciated the role of NABARD in promoting all round development of rural agro-economic sector. He emphasised the need for use of information technology and related initiatives in the sector and expressed confidence that PJTSAU would rise to the occasion and make the RBIC a success.
Chief General Manager of NABARD Y.K. Rao hoped that their association with the agriculture university in the promotion of rural agripreneurs would bring into practice the vast experience of the university and would steer the RBIC to new heights.
University VC Praveen Rao explained that the university had established a special purpose vehicle named AgHub in October last year with the idea of integrating agri-innovation.
