Telangana will continue to nurture a culture of innovation and help startups discover, innovate and create products and solutions at a global scale, Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said here on Thursday.

The senior official, speaking at the T-Innovation Mahotsavam, said this pointing out how the State has the innovation ecosystem enablers in place. “India is emerging as a global innovation hub and plays host to the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem,” he said.

The T-Innovation Mahotsavam was organised by the Telangana Government with the State’s ecosystem enablers such as the Department of IT, Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), T-Hub, WE Hub and the Emerging Technologies Wing.

Winners of the Telangana State Innovations for Rural Impact (TSIRI) incentives were also announced at the programme. 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 had received 136 applications from across the State of whom 18 were selected, following rigorous evaluation, for the incentives. The winners include six startups and 12 innovators.

CIO of Telangana Shanta Thoutam said 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.”

Startups for RubriX

Meanwhile, T-Hub has announced the selection of 13 startups for its first product development programme RubriX.

The programme aims to bring a global perspective to product development for early-stage technology startups from T-Hub’s robust innovation ecosystem, it said in a release on Wednesday. The five-month programme will help the startups design scalable and sustainable business models, enabling rapid product development and prototyping, leadership training and mentorship.