CM KCR’s Speech at the inauguration of T- Hub 2.0
Minister for IT Mr KT Rama Rao, Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy, invitees, guests, media representatives, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a very proud moment for me to inaugurate the new building of T-hub.
The journey of T-Hub started as an idea, eight years ago, when Telangana became the youngest state in India. At that time, we took a conscious decision that our state would consistently encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in a big way. We launched T-Hub in 2015, as a commitment to that decision. Today, seven years later, we are here to start our second phase of expansion, to build a resilient start-up ecosystem in India.
We are only weeks away from celebrating the 75th anniversary of our country’s independence, a major milestone in our history. At this juncture, it is very important for us to provide a clear vision and roadmap for our country about its future, especially to our youth. Young India is an aspirational India. It wants to be challenged and seeks to compete globally. Our government recognised this aspirational India early on and wanted to put young India on the global map. We wanted to build an India known equally for its entrepreneurial and technology capabilities.
Today, I can proudly say we have created a world-class entity at T-Hub to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. Our state’s startup policy is progressive, it has helped forge fruitful partnerships with both corporates and academia. This is something very uniquely wonderful about our state. Every stakeholder, be it from academia or R&D institutions or corporate, have wholeheartedly come forward to synergise its activities to support innovation and entrepreneurship. We truly embody the “whole of the state approach“. Everyone works together and supports each other. Around the fulcrum of T-hub, we promoted sister institutions to support different requirements of an entrepreneur. Today all of these institutions also, namely We-hub, T-Works, TSIC, RICH, and TASK, have become champions in their own right.
T-Hub was founded to bring in the best talent from across the country to nurture a startup ecosystem. T-Hub has now become a national role model. It has impacted over 2000 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 Phase 1 of T-Hub showed us that there is a huge appetite for entrepreneurship among the youth in India. We felt we must capitalize on this appetite. That we must 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 hope that through T-Hub these startups can strengthen their entrepreneurial spirit and bring global recognition to our state and the country with their accomplishments.
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. In 2021, the startup ecosystem of Telangana was valued at USD 4.8 billion. Among cities in India, Hyderabad offers the best standard of living, and we want Hyderabad to be known as the startup capital of India. Our startups are providing valuable collaboration to the main sectors of our economy, namely IT, Life Sciences, Aerospace and Defence, and Automotive including Electric Vehicles. Many of our start-ups have also created products and solutions relevant for social sectors like education, health, agriculture, sanitation, and environment. All this has been made possible due to the very progressive policies in our state like TS-IPass, TSBpass, and Telangana‘s start up and innovation policy. We have made doing business easier for the start-ups, ensure that they receive mentorship support, get connected with knowledge institutions and corporate‘s as per their requirements, receive funding support, and most importantly receive automatic job orders from government departments if their product or solution is of relevance to us.
Today, we are dedicating our T-Hub 2.0 facility to young Indians across the country. If they propose to build an innovative startup, we at T-Hub will provide them with a collaborative innovation ecosystem. The next journey of T-hub starts here in Hyderabad, today. And I am glad so many of you joined us here at this event. The presence of so many successful start-up founders in today’s function is there very positive sign that the efforts that we are making in Telangana is getting recognised at a wider canvas. I am hopeful that you will come back to collaborate and work with us. The day is not far away when the next big breakthrough in startup innovation will come from Hyderabad.
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CM KCR appreciated the IT Minister Mr KT Rama Rao and my team of officials who strived earnestly to create this unique model of innovation and entrepreneurship in our state.