Want Telangana to be known as start up state of the country: CM K Chandrasekhar Rao

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inaugurated the new facility of business incubator T-Hub here and said his government wants Telangana to be known as the start-up state of the country.

Addressing the gathering, the CM said the T-Hub was launched in 2015 in accordance with the government's decision to consistently encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in a big way.

Seven years later, the second phase is being started today to build a resilient start-up ecosystem in the country, he noted.

Recalling that T-Hub was founded to bring in the best talent from across the country to nurture a startup ecosystem, he said the T-Hub has now become a national role model.

''It has impacted over 2,000 entrepreneurs and seen 1.19 billion US dollars raised in funding by T-Hub startups. It has facilitated connections with venture capitalists and angel investors, establishing a brand name synonymous with innovation,'' the CM said.

Phase 1 of T-Hub demonstrated that there was a huge appetite for entrepreneurship among the youth in the country and the TRS government felt the need to provide them with best support from the startup stakeholders and give them a space for high-quality incubation and acceleration.

''Three years ago, our government decided to invest in the 2nd phase of T-Hub. This new facility is five times bigger. Our aim is to incubate the next generation of startups that would one day be strong pillars for our Indian economy.'' ''We want Telangana to be known as the start-up state of India. Our state's start-up ecosystem is valued as among the top 10 global ecosystems in affordable talent. It is among the top 15 startup ecosystems across Asia in attracting funds,'' Rao said.

Averring that Hyderabad offers the best standard of living among the cities in India, he said his government wants to make the city the startup capital of the country.

He pointed out that the startups in the state were providing valuable collaboration to the main sectors of our economy, including IT, Life Sciences, Aerospace and Defence and Electric Vehicles.

Many of the start-ups in the state have also developed products and solutions relevant to social sectors like education, health, agriculture, sanitation, and environment.

All this has been made possible due to the 'very progressive policies' in the state like TS-IPass, TSBpass, and Telangana's start up and innovation policy, the CM added. Announcing the inauguration, state IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao in a tweet said, ''Hon'ble CM Sri KCR inaugurated the world's largest innovation campus @THubHyd at Raidurg in Hyderabad today. T-Hub has a total built-up area of 5,82,689 sq. ft and 10 floors which can house over 2000 startups.'' T-Hub aims to impact at least 20,000 startups through its various program interventions in the next five years, said Rama Rao.

T-Hub's large-scale incubation and acceleration activities will include both early revenue and early-scale companies.

''The state of the art facility is a microcosm of the innovation ecosystem, which will include startups, corporates, investors, academia, and national and international ecosystem enablers,'' he added.