The first phase of T-Hub, claimed to be the country’s biggest incubator, will be inaugurated on September 7 at the IIIT (Hyderabad) campus at Gachibowli here. The Telangana government is taking up the project in association with Indian School of Business, IIIT (Hyderabad) and Nalsar (law university).

The first phase will incubate 400 start-ups in a built-up space of 30,000 sq ft. In the second phase, a ₹200-crore facility will be built by 2017 that is expected to house 1,000 start-ups and offices of other stakeholders.

Initially slated for launch in June, the government deferred the launch date as it was awaiting dates from Union Minister of Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ratan Tata. Though it is not clear whether the Union Minister would turn up for the event, a senior government official confirmed to BusinessLine Ratan Tata’s participation.

The Tata Group have already shown interest in taking part in the project that seeks to build space for technology incubators, investors and other enabling entities. The IT Secretary of Telangana, Jayesh Ranjan, had hinted that Tata Capital might invest in the VC fund to be set up as part of the T-Hub project.

Start-up awards

Ranjan announced the introduction of Inspiring Indian Innovation award for start-ups in five categories. Introduced by organisers of India Gadget Expo that is scheduled to be held next month, the award will reward start-ups for Best Innovation, Best Start-up (early stage), Best Start-up (growth Stage), Best Social impact product and Best student IoT project.

The top-10 finalists in each category will get free exhibition space at the India Gadget Expo.

Published on August 20, 2015