Hyderabad: Telangana’s first of its kind incubator, in a hub and spoke format, at Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agriculture University (PJTSAU) has received sanction letter from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Wednesday.
The hub, Rural Business Incubation Centre (RBIC), received initial sanction of Rs 9 crore and a letter to this effect was handed over to the university in the presence of municipal administration and urban development minister KT Rama Rao.
The hub would work with spokes at Vikarabad and Jagtial. The RBIC would provide common infrastructure and services such as technology development assistance, networking and mentoring, funding access, training and development, business support services (entrepreneurship development, marketing, finance and accounting, research, legal, regulatory, e pre-incubation services, hand-holding, amongst others to startups, businesses etc.
PJTSAU vice-chancellor (VC) Praveen Kumar said the hub was in tune with various initiatives of the state to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across all sectors, including agriculture. In line with this, the PJTSAU has formed special purpose vehicle AgHub, a Section-8 company under the Companies Act, in October, 2020.
Promotion of rural entrepreneurship would happen among youth, women and grassroot innovators in tier-II and tier-III towns of the state. The uniqueness of the hub is pilot research projects will be conducted with farmers and food processing organizations at grass root level to present the proof of concept to funders.
Currently, 11 startups working with robotic management, drones and others have already been registered and are engaged with field activities, officials said.
