Telangana launches B-PoST - A Blockchain based Solution for Loan Disbursement, Repayments to Poor Women

Stree Nidhi, which is promoted jointly by Telangana Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (PR and RD) and Federations of Self Help Group (SHG), has launched B-PoST, a blockchain technology based solution to provide loans and repayments to poor and underprivileged women.

A flagship of Telangana government, StreeNidhi provides timely and affordable credit to the poor SHG members as a part of the overall strategy of the state government's SERP (Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty) for poverty alleviation.

The new blockchain platform, B-PoST (Blockchain – Protection of Stree Nidhi Transactions), will allow record keeping of loan disbursement and repayments of Stree Nidhi for all of its 1.5 lakh members. The Self-Help Group (SHG) member-level credit rating will be derived from these blockchain transactions. The SHG Members may now leverage their credit rating to avail other financial instruments from banks and other institutions.

Currently launched as a pilot project, B-PoST is implemented by Cognitochain, which is a startup based out of Hyderabad. The pilot phase will include 1.5 lakh SHG members of Rajanna District of Telangana.

Notably, Telangana Government and Tech Mahindra along with IBC Media have partnered together to access the Indian Tech startup ecosystem for the T-block accelerator program, that allows startups, that are leveraging strong blockchain use cases, to come up on investible stage.

Source - Telangana Today

CII Sets Up Centre in Telangana to Help Startups connect with Large Biz Houses, Corporates

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an industry association in India, has launched the CII Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups in Telangana over a digital platform, on Saturday. The centre is established with goal of helping startups to connect with large business houses and corporates.

The CII Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups is supported by the Government of Telangana, by way of space at T-Hub technology startup incubator in the city, and Pratiksha, a charitable trust founded by Mr. S Gopalakrishnan.

In his keynote address at the Launch ceremony, Mr Rao, applauded that the centre is a pioneering initiative of CII and is a standing testimony of an enabling ecosystem of Telangana. He further emphasized that the start-up-focused approach of the Telangana government can be estimated from its multiple sector-specific initiatives such as cleantech focused ‘Sanitation Hub (S-Hub)’, ‘We-Hub’ for supporting women entrepreneurs, prototyping centre - ‘T-Works’, block-chain accelerator ‘T-Block’, largest startup incubator, ‘T-Hub’, and the existence of progressive life sciences companies among others.

The Centre is set to provide a very robust platform for building a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. The primary objective of the Centre would be to attract most innovative start-ups to collaborate with the corporates and to help corporates identify suitable budding start-ups for forging business partnerships and work with start-ups at the co-working space.

The Centre shall forge partnerships with 9100 members of CII from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 288 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. The Centre would curate a customised programme for corporate houses and enable connect with the right start-ups based on industry’s needs and future strategies. 

Further, the CII Centre would lay a special focus on deep tech start-ups in manufacturing sector by creating a pool of potential start-ups from young researcher community and help them developing business plans and with investment.

The Centre would further help investors select potential start-ups for committing financial stake, build partnerships with the national and international academic centres of excellence (CoE) for imparting knowledge to and assistance in capacity development of budding start-ups, and work with Government of India and State governments to forge partnerships with foreign governments to launch mutual soft-landing of start-ups.

The Centre will serve as a knowledge Centre for preparing and empowering potential entrepreneurs in India through various capacity building programs and convert job seekers to job creators. The Centre will also strengthen capabilities of entrepreneurs to improve their competitiveness in the local and international markets, assist entrepreneurs in the process of business opportunity identification, analysis and finalization, supporting market research, facilitate technology tie-ups thereby creating enabling ecosystem for growth of start-up and employment generation

Telangana Govt. Deploys Startup ‘Vera’s -COVID -19 Monitoring System’ - India’s 1st Real-Time Technology to Intensify Centralised COVID Surveillance

In a major COVID-19 pandemic Public Health initiative, the Public Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt of Telangana, swiftly deployed India’s first automated “COVID – 19 Monitoring System App” developed by Vera Smart Healthcare to identify, undertake live surveillance, track, monitor, and provide real-time analytics to Chief Minister and the Health Department.

“COVID – 19 Monitoring System App”, developed in a record time to deal with the pandemic, enables live surveillance, monitoring, tracking, reporting, and major bulletins. The analytics by the app also facilitate assurance to the stakeholders by providing the facts and figures in their fingertips.

The system empowers each health-caller to handle 1500+ calls, and simple chatbot interaction every day with a patient, to ensure that the symptomatic or confirmed ‘positive’, quarantined and is under treatment, helping to strengthen the COVID contacts outreach significantly. The callers will also persuade and remind the patient to self-administer the prescribed treatment, to maintain social distancing, as well as give a reminder to stay home and stay safe.



This user-friendly app is developed by the US and Hyderabad based, early stage start-up Vera Smart Healthcare, which had earlier helped Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, to create detailed health profiles for more than 50000 people across these 3 states in a record number of days.

Vera has introduced the first-ever mobile hospital in India to help increase healthcare accessibility in rural areas covering most of the Indian villages. The company focuses on building smart hospitals in India along with its technology partner Fellow.

[caption id="attachment_143881" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dharma Teja Nukarapu - Founder & CEO, VERA Smart Healthcare[/caption]

Announcing the successful deployment of Vera’s COVID – 19 Monitoring System App, Director of Public Health Dr. G Srinivas Rao, for COVID surveillance, commended Vera Smart Healthcare expertise to handle COVID surveillance complexities, understand the protocol, and developing the technology platform in a record of 3 days.

The system has helped us first, track and monitor the foreign returnees; community spread and already hospitalised for severe acute respiratory infection (SARS) very early to control spread of COVID pandemic in the state.”

“Vera Centralised COVID Monitoring System is a timely technology innovation, eased the pain off by effective surveillance, and deploy a meticulous tech-enabled method to collate vital data, at the click of a button empowering active associates across the state, from the hierarchical polity to bureaucracy to the front line ASHA & ANM workers, to make COVID – 19, a history.” Dr. Srinivas stated

“The Monitoring System which is built on a digital platform, erases human errors, and provides accurate information. The quick turnaround, and the innovative psyche, has initiated improved surveillance, tracking – effective monitoring, and supervision.” Dr. Srinivas added.

Explaining its benefits, Dharma Teja Nukarapu, Founder and CEO of Vera Healthcare stated “Our technology is based on IoT, Smart devices, GPS and Geotag via a super lite centralized App – COVID – 19 Monitoring System, which is installed in the phones of all associates from the ground level till the Chief Minister’s Office. The system was built by Vera in record time. Every stakeholder got comprehensive training on using the App.”

“Among the vital features of the app is Geotagging and GPS tracking of the home quarantined person, to ensure that he/she is not breaching the law of quarantine. With instant trace and trackability, accurate information is pushed to the authorities even if there is a breach. Every detail reported –reaches the Chief Minister’s Office through various updaters like the ASHA worker, Doctor, Police, concerned Bureaucrat."

“Vera Healthcare is now readying to release a batch of “SMART PATCH” which tags the patient geographically, monitors and disseminates his / her real-time health progress” Dharma Teja added.

COVID -19 Monitoring System – Touch Points

• ASHA and ANM worker - at the frontline. At any given point of time, around 1500-2000 of these workers use the App. A total of more than 5000 ASHA ANM workers are involved, and are using the App to identify, register, track, monitor and report the health condition of the patients who are home quarantined for symptoms.


• PHC sub-center - Around 4800 in number, receive data from the ASHA workers, push them to the next level.


• PHC - Public Health Centre, 886 in the state, flows out the data to the District Medical Health Office.


• DMHO - the officer-in-charge takes charge of the situation in the respective districts by following the concerned hierarchical officer at the Health Department, to whom the data is transmitted.

DSCI, Telangana Govt's Cybersecurity CoE Invites Applications for Startup Incubation Program

Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (CoE)- a joint initiative of DSCI and Government of Telangana is inviting applications from companies and start-ups in cyber security & data privacy domain for its upcoming incubator and accelerator centre. 

The first round of applications is closing soon. The program will kickstart in February at the upcoming CCoE campus in Hyderabad. Any individual or a team that has an idea or an existing solution in the field of cyber security and data privacy with a potential to become a scalable business model can apply. The applications will be evaluated by an experienced team of senior members from industry and government from across the country.

Speaking about the Incubation centre Dr. Sriram Birudavolu, CEO, Cybersecurity centre of Excellence, Hyderabad said, “Start-ups are accepting the challenge of bringing newer ideas and scope in protecting enterprises from cyber attacks& protecting data. We would like to incubate such start-ups with innovative ideas in solving cyber and data threats to the present day enterprises and government establishments. These organizations will have access to our ecosystem and access our partnership network with global cyber security establishments to develop cutting edge products for the worldwide requirement. Looking forward to the participation of innovators in cyber security sphere!”

About Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CoE): 

The Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CoE) is a joint initiative of the Government of Telangana and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) to accelerate the cybersecurity momentum and create a conducive cybersecurity ecosystem that nurtures innovation, entrepreneurship and capability building. CoE works with all industry organizations, government agencies, academia and R&D centers and user groups and collaborates with other industry bodies, incubators and accelerators to accomplish its mission. DSCI is a not-for-profit, industry body on data protection in India, set up by NASSCOM®, committed to making the cyberspace safe, secure and trusted by establishing best practices, standards and initiatives in cyber security and privacy. DSCI is the apex industry body for Cybersecurity in India.

Smartphone Maker Oppo Ties with Telangana to Support Startups in the State

Chinese smartphone player Oppo on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana state government to support and develop the startup ecosystem in the state.

As part of the agreement, Oppo would provide technical expertise and mentoring support to startups helping the government create a supportive startup ecosystem for working in camera and image processing, battery, networks (5G), system performance, payments, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and gaming, reported BGR.

To recall, Oppo made its first investment in India when it funded POPxo, a New Delhi-based women-centric digital media startup, in April last year.

“Through this partnership with the government of Telangana, which has shown positive intent in fostering a conducive ecosystem of entrepreneurship in the state, we hope to encourage and co-develop innovative solutions that will transform the smartphone industry across the country,” said Tasleem Arif, Vice President, Research and Development Head, Oppo India.

The company would also provide market access to chosen startups by Alpha/Beta testing their offerings with the “Oppo Color Operating System (OS)” community and helping them with feedbacks.

The startups would be selected on the basis of the the solutions they provide towards key problems faced by Indian mobile users, with the intention of using their idea, application, technology or service to help enhance consumer experience.

“Oppo aims to play an active role in mobilising the untapped potential of Indians entrepreneurs and support them in their journey towards developing and growing their respective startups,” the company noted.

India's Largest Hardware Prototyping Centre (Makerspace) to Launch in April'19

After giving the country its biggest incubation and accelerator centre T-Hub, Telangana government is now gearing up to unveil country’s largest Makerspace a.k.a hardware prototyping centre -- 'T-Works'. T-Works will be open its doors for electronics, electromechanical and mechanical startups and individuals by April, 2019.

The first phase of T-Works will be spread across 70,000 sq. ft. and will house about 500-plus people. Going forward, the second phase of T-Works will be spread across 2.5 lakh sq ft. and can house almost 1,500-2,000 people at any given point of time and it is set to be unveiled in another two years.

In T-Works anyone will get an access to consumable, prototyping equipment and a community of designers, engineers, artists, contract manufacturers, corporates all in one location. Telangana government is committed to continue adding sections to T-Works' prototyping facility to cater to hobbyists, artists, and entrepreneurs.

The hardware prototyping facility, which is set to come up closer to T-Hub phase-II, will be set up with an overall investment of Rs 60 crore out of which Rs 40 crore will be spend on the building and the rest Rs 20 crore will be spent on equipment – purchased both by the government and also by the partnering companies.

Also Read - 20 Best Makerspaces In India To Build and Innovate

The phase-2 of T-Hub, the accelerator & incubator, has been postponed to June next year as there were some defects in the construction, according to the state government officials. The completion T-Hub Pahse-2 is expected by June-July next year.

With the first phase-2, T-Works will be among the top 3 prototyping facility in the world, according to Sujai Karampuri, CEO, T-Works.

More than 30 companies will collaborate with the T-Works and unlike T-hub there will be non-discriminatory access to everyone. The makerspace has partnered with GE First Build, Dassault, Microsoft and Qualcomm for the facility.

The makerspace is actively looking for corporate, academia, non-profits, skilling agencies and others to actively work with it and create an enabling culture for makers and entrepreneurs alike.

Telangana Awarded Startups, Launches CoE on Cybersecurity Along with T-Web, T-SWAN

Marking the fourth year since the formation of the state of Telangana, K T Rama Rao, minister for IT, Industries, MA&UD and NRI Affairs released the annual report 2017-18 of the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department. As part of the event, the minister also launched several new initiatives aligned with the vision of Digital Telangana.

In the event, the minister awareded startups under categories of different sector they are working in. ChitMonks was awarded the most innovative Blockchain startup. Two year old ChitMonks, based out of T-Hub uses a state of the art Blockchain technology to bring the various registered Chit fund companies in the state along with the registrars onto an immutable, smart contract enabled, highly secure platform.

Adonmo won the most promising AdTech startup. Also based out of T-Hub, Adonmo is building a first-of-its-kind digital outdoor advertising network capable of contextually targeting ads using cutting edge IOT, AI and Computer Vision technologies.

The most innovative smart cities startup award was given to Ayasta, which is an enterprise focused IoT startup working on Digitising Electrical. It has built a proprietary platform called CEGMA, which is a culmination of sensors, Machine Learning and Computer VIsion to monitor, analyse and detect anomalies in the electrical systems both inside a given facility and outside in the electrical grid.

Aadhaar-based startup Syntizen won the most innovative Aadhar-based solutions startup. Syntizen Technologies is an Identity Solutions based startup powering organisations with the Aadhaar eco system in India. The startup also manages the complete Aadhaar eco-system for the state of Telangana and Uttar Pradesh along with their private clients.

The minister also launched several new initiatives which includes a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for R&D on cybersecurity, T-Web, TASK Mobile VAN T-SOC, T-SWAN, and TSTS ABAS. The details of all these are as below:

Cybersecurity CoE

An MoU was signed between the government . of Telangana and Data Security Council of India to set up a Centre of Excellence on Cybersecurity in Hyderabad. This CoE, an initiative of NASSCOM, the first of its kind in India, will focus on creating an ecosystem for cybersecurity R&D, product development, capacity building, and innovation.

The CoE based on Public-Private-Partnership model will accelerate and strengthen the ecosystem by focusing on strategic areas including, innovation, entrepreneurship and capability building. This CoE in partnership with industry will also enhance State’s Cyber Security preparedness, adoption of security technologies and capability building.

T-Web

T-Web aims to make Telangana’s government websites usable, uniform, user-friendly and universally accessible. The components of the project include T-Web Search, a One Stop Shop (OSS) for Telangana government Information and Services. As part of T-Web, Guidelines for Telangana Government Websites (GTGW) were prepared based on Guidelines prepared by GoI but goes beyond to include Compliance to Govt. Acts, SEO and Mobile-friendliness, Social Media Integration and Localisation. Finally, T-Web also includes a standardised website framework that serves as a guiding document for building Telangana Govt. Websites quickly, easily and economically.

T-SOC

Telangana Security Operations Centre (T-SOC) aims to secure the government data and critical infrastructure using state-of-art threat detection and response capabilities by setting up a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. In phase-1 of T-SOC, entire infrastructure of State Data Centre (SDC) and Secretariat Area Network (SCAN) has been integrated with T-SOC.

T-SWAN

Telangana State Wide Network (T-SWAN), marks major upgradation in the erstwhile SWAN infrastructure of Telangana. Under T-SWAN, the broadband connectivity at District HQs, and Mandal HQs has been enhanced significantly in a short span of 6 months from October 2017. The HQs of all 31 districts (earlier, 10) have been provided with 34 Mbps internet connection along with a 20 Mbps (earlier 12 Mbps) dedicated intranet connection. More importantly, the connectivity to old and new Mandal HQs has been improved from 4 Mbps to 12 Mbps bandwidth. The beneficiaries of a 200% increase in bandwidth include more than 46 government departments and 101 sub departments, MeeSeva Centres and other online services.

TSTS ABAS

In a first of its kind implementation, Telangana State Technology Services has developed an Aadhaar based Attendance System, called TSTS ABAS providing all three critical components for an effective biometric based attendance system i.e. Device, Connectivity and authentication solution. Through a soft launch earlier this year, the solution has already been implemented for Students of JNTU, GHMC Sanitary workers, Property Registration, Board of Intermediate education etc. and is witnessing around 1 lakh authentications every day. The initiative is a key step towards Digital Governance.

Electronic Service Delivery is continuously looking for avenues to improve the incomes of the Mee Seva Franchsiees. As part of this ESD signed an MoU with IFFCO BAZAR, a leading e-commerce portal for agricultural inputs. Under this MoU, the farmers will be able to access IFFCO Bazar, through MeeSeva Centres, to purchase and get home delivery of agricultural inputs at no additional cost. Mee Seva Franchisees will get additional income paid by IFFCO. This is a first of its kind initiative in the country wherein the farmers can use assisted online service of Mee Seva to buy agricultural inputs through on line.

As part of the event, the government also awarded several companies, startups and individuals for their achievements and contribution towards the IT industry in the state.

Infosys was awarded for the highest software exports, and employee generation, while Tech Mahindra was awarded for outstanding CSR and also for promotion of a tier-2 city (Warangal).

R Pavani, who set up Digital Seva Kendram in Arrur village, Valigonda Mandal, Yadadri district and providing various services like G2C services, Passport, PAN card, Insurance, Education and Digital Literacy training was awarded the Digital Literacy Leader awards. She is providing Digital Literacy training to their villagers especially to SHG Women in the village. The job aspirants in the village are preparing for exams online with the help of Digital Literacy.

V. Nagarani, Pulyala Rajani, P Koteshwar Rao and Guguloth Rajesh were also awarded the Digital Literacy leader award.

[Top Image -Indiafilings.com]

NASSCOM To Setup CoE for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Hyderabad

Future of India wil definitely be bright in coming days, as far as adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) kind of new-age technologies is concerned. To recall, few days back Maharashtra govt. announced to bring India's first artificial intelligence centre in Mumbai, followed by announcement made by tech giant Adobe to establish an AI Lab in Hyderabad.

Now in a latest development, IT industry’s apex body Nasscom, in partnership with the Telangana government, announced that it will establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Hyderabad, reported BGR. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) held in Hyderabad.

The CoE for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DS & AI) will be established on a public-private partnership model, which is the most recent addition to NASSCOM’s ‘hub-and-spoke’ network of CoEs across major locations in the country, aimed at evangelizing new and emerging technologies.

The DS & AI CoE will be temporarily come up in the campus of Hyderabad's International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and will be later shifted to Data Analytics Park to come up at Budvel, which is on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Telangana govt and Nasscom will jointly invest ₹40 crore, initially for the CoE. Notably, an MoU was signed by Telangana’s Information Technology Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and Nasscom President R. Chandrasekhar in the presence of Telangana IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao.

The upcoming DS & AI CoE will catalyze the growth of the deep tech ecosystem in Telangana, by providing the stimulus for innovation and in-depth research in the areas of data science and artificial intelligence, said the officials to a national daily.

Leveraging its partner and member ecosystem, Nasscom will work to enable industry-oriented research, augment citizen-centric solutions, promote data-driven decision making, enhance academic capacities, and support appropriate skills building and talent development through the CoE.

Recently, India’s IT ministry has also constituted four committees to thoroughly study on various aspects of Artificial Intelligence for citizen-centric use.

Last July, Karnataka state government had too announced that it will set up a Centre of Excellence for data science and artificial intelligence along with Nasscom as its programme and implementation partner.

In September 2017, Karnataka state government had too announced that Bengaluru will soon have India’s first multi-faceted artificial intelligence and robotics centre to established in IIIT-Bengaluru campus.

Top Image - sci.aalto.fi

Microsoft Accelerator Alum Transaction Analysts Collaborates with Telangana Government to Launch T-wallet

Microsoft Accelerator alum startup Transaction Analysts has partnered with the Government of Telangana to launch ‘T- wallet’, enabling cashless payments for all segments of the society. ‘T-wallet’ will be available as an Anytime Anywhere digital payment option across formats such as - Online Web Browser, Smart Phone, Feature Phone and even without a phone. T-wallet will be hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure, which provides the most comprehensive and secure platform to host the T-wallet.

Hyderabad based Transaction Analysts, is a digital payment service startup that is specialized in cashless payments and has been a provider of digital payment services to leading hospitals, colleges, universities, temples and corporate since 2010. Partnering with the Telangana state government on the T-wallet, the company aims to achieve financial inclusion and increase user transactions based on Aadhar, with or without the need for a bank account. Supporting Telugu, Urdu and English, the wallet is created on Azure platform and designed for scalable performance with enhanced security. Microsoft’s Azure being one of the most secure and agile platforms has been instrumental in making the entire procedure a safe and reliable one. Microsoft as a company has been at the forefront of digital transformation across industry verticals and continues to encourage and support digital empowerment through enabling startups like Transaction Analysts to create innovative technology solutions through its accelerator arm. Transaction Analyst was part of Microsoft Accelerator’s ninth cohort which graduated at Think Next in December 2016.

Despite being a state of the art digital payment system using the latest technologies, T- Wallet has been designed to allow all segments of society to do cashless payment without going through any learning process. Telangana government has made the use of Microsoft cloud to embark on their vision of digital transformation by empowering citizens and optimizing business processes. Citizens of Telangana can now use this one-of-a-kind wallet to make payments for both Government and Private transactions.

T.CoWork - An Initiative To Bring All Incubators and Coworking Space Under One Roof

The Telangana Government's State Innovation Cell's latest initiative 'T.CoWork' aims to bring all the co-working spaces and incubators existing in the city under one network. Through this, it aspires to help early stage startups in the city save their precious time and focus on their core product or service as they can get access to market connections, business or strategy mentors, and investors all under one roof.

According to IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, the state government has already rolled out the innovation policy and is currently on a lookout for a chief innovation officer. He also added, that the government is very focused about the whole initiative and wants to make sure that the impact is felt at ground level. In fact, the government has also set aside huge funds for making this a humongous success.

Ranjan also added that they would ensure that the Hyderabad's USP as a startup hub, which is the availability of high-quality infrastructure at relatively lower cost than other cities in the country, is diligently followed even while providing T.CoWork facilities to startups.

He also highlighted the need of incubators and co-working spaces along with academic institutions to instil an atmosphere of support for startups and push them towards better innovation.

Talking about the need for T.CoWork, Ramesh Loganathan, professor, co-innovation at IIIT-H, who is now leading the State Innovation Cell (SIC) said that some co-working spaces in the city have been wanting to do something fruitful for the startups with them. However, getting investors, mentors and organising talks was proving to be a big, daunting task for a majority of them, mainly due to their small size. This is where SIC's T.CoWork comes into picture.

According to Ramesh Loganathan, who is the interim chief innovation officer, T.CoWork will seek to continue the collaboration of incubators and co-working spaces with academic institutions. Its action plan to make this possible is to roll out shared support, regular monthly meet-ups to build a rich network and one meeting every six months where startups can connect with mentors, industry partners and potential investors.

He believes that T.CoWork will create a platform for discovery of startup. They are numerous startups working in the city currently, but they government doesn't know where or on what they are working on. T.CoWork can help in documenting these early startups and make it an easy task for the prospective investors and mentors.

Loganathan also revealed that they're also considering launching workshops once in every two months where it would provide help and advice to startups in the idea stage and early stage.

While T.CoWork is still taking off, the State Innovation Cell is reportedly already ready with its next big initiative 'T.Enablers', which will be like a one-stop shop for all startup resources.

President To Launch T-Works, A Startup Incubator for Hardware Industry

The Telangana Government has decided to send a formal request to President Pranab Mukherjee to grace the launch of the state's startup incubator for hardware industry called T-Works. The event is scheduled to take place next month in the recently christened 29th state of the country.

T-Works is a startup incubator created on the same lines as T-Hub, but for the hardware industry. The whole setup is being built on a large in Telangana's much-famous university, Osmania University.

According to a statement given by Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of IT, "T-Works on the lines of T-Hub for Hardware, a large setup will come up in Osmania University and we are requesting the President Pranab Mukherjee to launch it during the Centenary Celebrations of the University next month."

He further added, that the large setup will work as a prototyping centre for electronics, semiconductors and hardware startups and provide young talents a platform to succeed.

The incubator will boost of machinery and equipment that will be able to cater the needs of different types of hardware requirements, especially Internet of Thing (IoT) hardware and electronic hardware. It will also come stocked with sophisticated machinery, testing labs and the startups will be able to use them as a common facility.

According to Ranjan, a startup will be able to book the equipment and use it for a specific period of time. They will be required to pay a user fee for the time the equipment is used.

The state Government has plans of investing a whopping Rs. 35-40 crores for all the equipment needs of T-Works.

Speaking at the National Conference on 'Inno Vision in Packaging' organised by Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), Ranjan shared that the idea of T-Works came to him and his team when they paid a visit to iHub, which is the innovation hub in United States' California. T-Works will be adopting a similar model to iHub in Hyderabad.

T-Works functioning will be on the similar lines as T-Hub and will have a professional CEO and COO. A board will also be constituted to oversee the working of T-Works and will have both industry representatives and government representatives on it.

Google Plans To Open Its Own Campus In Hyderabad

Google, the search giant, is all set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana government regarding setting up its own big and permanent campus in Hyderabad.  Google is currently functioning from rented premises in India. The Hyderabad Campus will be the Internet giant’s third campus after the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We are likely to sign MoU with Google. They are likely to open their campus here in Hyderabad. It will be the third campus that they will have after the US and the UK,” said Harpreet Singh, Telangana IT, Electronics and Communication, in a statement to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

The search giant wants to make a move from its rented campus to a big and permanent campus in India.

Singh further added, Along with Google various other companies like Airtel, Cisco, Vodafone and a Taiwanese firm etc. have also expressed their interest in contributing to the government’s venture to make Hyderabad a Wi-Fi enabled city. “Many of them are partnering and coming,” he said. Singh further divulged that the Taiwanese firm which has expressed its interest in the venture is in fact the same firm which was responsible for making Taipei a Wi-Fi enabled city.

The Telangana government is currently working towards providing the interested companies with detailed information such as the maps of the city, including roads etc. regarding the venture.  According to Singh “It will take time because business model is the critical issue. Making Wi-Fi is not a big problem but how to monetize it is the key issue.”

The Contract for the above said venture can be expected to be awarded by the government in the period of next 3-4 months after sending out the request for proposals and the bidding process. After this, the successful bidder will take another six months or so to roll out the entire infrastructure. So, it will take another one year for Hyderabad to become Wi-Fi enabled.

A press conference regarding the Google and Telangana government MoU is expected to take place soon. We at IndianWeb.com will keep you updated on the news.

Google Plans To Open Its Own Campus In Hyderabad

Google, the search giant, is all set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana government regarding setting up its own big and permanent campus in Hyderabad.  Google is currently functioning from rented premises in India. The Hyderabad Campus will be the Internet giant’s third campus after the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We are likely to sign MoU with Google. They are likely to open their campus here in Hyderabad. It will be the third campus that they will have after the US and the UK,” said Harpreet Singh, Telangana IT, Electronics and Communication, in a statement to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

The search giant wants to make a move from its rented campus to a big and permanent campus in India.

Singh further added, Along with Google various other companies like Airtel, Cisco, Vodafone and a Taiwanese firm etc. have also expressed their interest in contributing to the government’s venture to make Hyderabad a Wi-Fi enabled city. “Many of them are partnering and coming,” he said. Singh further divulged that the Taiwanese firm which has expressed its interest in the venture is in fact the same firm which was responsible for making Taipei a Wi-Fi enabled city.

The Telangana government is currently working towards providing the interested companies with detailed information such as the maps of the city, including roads etc. regarding the venture.  According to Singh “It will take time because business model is the critical issue. Making Wi-Fi is not a big problem but how to monetize it is the key issue.”

The Contract for the above said venture can be expected to be awarded by the government in the period of next 3-4 months after sending out the request for proposals and the bidding process. After this, the successful bidder will take another six months or so to roll out the entire infrastructure. So, it will take another one year for Hyderabad to become Wi-Fi enabled.

A press conference regarding the Google and Telangana government MoU is expected to take place soon. We at IndianWeb.com will keep you updated on the news.