Telangana’s Information Technology and Panchayat Raj Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Friday set in motion development of the country’s largest start-up incubation center ‘T Hub’ at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Gachibowli.
The 60,000 square feet, five-floor building is part of the first phase of Government’s T Hub initiative and is expected to become operational by June. When fully functional, it can host 400 start-ups and is expected to generate employment for 3,000 people by the end of 2017. Mr. Rama Rao laid the foundation stone for the building, which was conceptualized by W Design Studio.
Speaking about ‘T Hub’, the Minister said that it would nurture entrepreneurs who in today’s world were the biggest employment generators. He also said that the incubator would also incubate other incubators in the partnering institutions.
“T Hub would also serve as an incubator of incubators. Our target is also to have at least 10 incubators by the end of 2017,” he said.
He further described ‘T Hub’s working through three facilities. An idea would find assistance in the ‘launch-pad’ component of ‘T Hub’ while those which have been prototyped would be aided by the ‘accelerator’. Finally, start-ups which have product in hand can seek assistance with marketing through the ‘propeller’ facility. This would allow entrepreneurs in any stage of an idea’s lifecycle, to avail ‘T Hub’s facilities.
Mr. Rama Rao also mentioned plans to set up a venture fund that would get contributions both from Government and private sector. The second phase of ‘T Hub’ would be setup in Raidurgam where three lakh square feet of space would be available by 2018, the Minister said. He told mediapersons that major global brands like Wipro, Google, Capegemini and Amazon had expansion plans in the city.
Academic institutions partnering ‘T Hub’ included Indian School of Business (ISB), IIIT Hyderabad and NALSAR. These institutions would assist start ups with management, technology and legal aspects of setting up and running a venture.
The ‘T Hub’ would be administered by a board of directors which would include representatives from each of partnering academic institutions and noted entrepreneurs from the city.
