Telangana Celebrates T-Innovation Mahotsavam Highlighting Achievements of the State’s Robust Innovation Ecosystem
Telangana Government along with the state’s ecosystem enablers organised a one-of-a-kind event, T-Innovation Mahotsavam to mark World Creativity and Innovation Day. Aiming to showcase the spread and depth of innovation across India. T-Innovation Mahotsavam celebrated and showcased the state’s inclusive ecosystem that has been contributing to Incredible and Innovative India.
T-Innovation Mahotsavam also announced the winners of the Telangana State Innovations for Rural Impact (TSIRI) Incentives. The Telangana Government released a Government Order (GO) in July 2021 making TSIC the nodal agency to extend TSIRI incentives to the startups with rural impact with an initial corpus fund of INR 30 lakh. The incentives will help startups scale proof of concept to prototype, prototype to MVP, MVP to market-ready, and for product trials and pilot projects. TSIC received 136 applications from across the State and after rigorous evaluation 18 winners were awarded the incentives, including 6 startups and 12 innovators.
The event recognised more such achievements and celebrated entrepreneurs, researchers, students, as well as ecosystem enablers that are making or made an impact in India’s innovation ecosystem. The event brought together ecosystem enablers like the Department of ITE&C, Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), T-Hub, WE HUB, Research & Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), T-Works, Telangana Academy for Skill & Knowledge (TASK), IMAGE Center of Excellence, and Emerging Technologies Wing.
Speaking at the event, Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, Information Technology (IT), Government of Telangana, Hyderabad, said “India is emerging as a global innovation hub, boasting as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. Telangana has always been at the forefront of helping India achieve this stature. With our ecosystem enablers in place, we will continue to nurture a culture of innovation in the state and help our startups to discover, innovate and create products and solutions at a global scale.”
T-Innovation Mahotsavam’s celebration was addressed by distinguished industry leaders like Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, Information Technology (IT), Government of Telangana, Hyderabad, Mahankali Srinivas Rao (MSR), CEO of T-Hub, Dr Shanta Thoutam, CIO of Telangana, Shrikant Sinha, CEO of TASK, Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB, Rashmi Pimpale, CEO of RICH, Sujai Karampuri, CEO of T-Works. The event saw huge participation from startups across the country and other national and international stakeholders.
MSR, CEO of T-Hub said, “Creativity and innovation are major factors involved in the prosperity of countries and the well-being of their people. It can only be achieved through meaningful associations hence the collaborative theme of T-Innovation Mahotsavam is very important. It validates Telangana’s existence as a tightly knit, highly interconnected ecosystem where government works alongside ecosystem enablers, academia, entrepreneurs, and investors. Together we have unleashed the capacity for problem-solving that impacts varied sectors of the global economy and we will continue to enable the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.”
Dr Shanta Thoutam, CIO of Telangana said, “T-Innovation Mahotsavam is being celebrated for the first time in Telangana ensuring our end recipients are given the centre stage to share the value addition by the state innovation ecosystem to their entrepreneurial journey. With TSIRI incentives, we are providing a bit of financial freedom for the eligible Innovators, Wannapreneurs, Researchers, and early-stage Startups to freely tinker around and continue to innovate. We are glad to share that this first-of-a-kind initiative by the state government has garnered good traction with applications covering more than 10 sectors. The funds will be disbursed to the selected startups and innovators based on defined milestones.”
The event featured key aspects of the innovation ecosystem through inspiring keynotes and entrepreneur talkies by inspiring startups, social/grassroots innovators, tribal women entrepreneurs, and Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) startups and Product Development support to startups. The sessions by entrepreneurs focussed on knowledge exchange, highlighting their entrepreneurial journey, and support received from the Telangana innovation ecosystem. These startups were Orangeshark, Truvoice, Quixy, AIDIA Health, Vivalyf Innovations (Shark Tank India Deal Winner), PlugXR, Nebulaa Innovations, TraceX Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Laurik, Kinderpass and Rajmani Mushrooms.
Furthermore, the event had a session on rapid prototyping, which was followed by the announcement of TSIRI winners. The celebration concluded with the innovation showcase where startups and innovators got an opportunity to present their innovations to the event attendees.