Telangana State is aiming to become the Artificial Intelligence hub of India and the world, according to several sources.

AI is the next stop

As part of “2020 Year of AI” initiative, the Government of Telangana launched the Telangana AI Mission (T-AIM) in collaboration with NASSCOM.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) is an Indian non-governmental trade association and advocacy group focused mainly on Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. Established in 1988, NASSCOM is a non-profit organisation.

The vision of T-AIM is to develop Telangana as a global hub for Artificial Intelligence and leverage it for societal good. T-AIM announced the launch of the accelerator program ‘Revv Up’ that will enable and empower AI start-ups.

Revv Up, kicked off in July this year. It aims to boost up Telangana and Hyderabad as a global destinations for AI & other emerging technologies.

The accelerator programme, exclusively designed for growth-stage AI start-ups, will cover various sectors.

Opportunity for Start-ups

The Revv Up accelerator will provide the opportunity for start-ups to solve tough business problems in collaboration with government and industry.

Selected start-ups will receive mentorship from industry experts, and technology and IP support to build a scalable business around their AI-based product or offering.

The major takeaways that a start-up can have are – Effective Market Access Technique, Exposed to investor roundtable, technology resources, IP harvesting, leadership lessons and scale-up mentoring.

The Revv Up programme is focused on Agriculture, Education, Environment, Law Enforcement, e-governance, smart cities and healthcare. These are the sectors that can benefit from Artificial Intelligence aplications.

Eligibility criteria for a start-up

The start-up may be registered anywhere in India, although must have a presence in Hyderabad. Product / Solution should have majority AI, ML, NLP, Computer Vision technologies. Potential to Scale and should have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Preference will be given to start-ups with up to 30 employees (incl. founding team).

Snehanshu Mitra, Head, T-AIM, says: “Revv Up particularly looks at growth-stage AI start-ups – they need to have a product in at least rudimentary stages of deployment, and a skeletal idea of sales, marketing and support functions. These start-ups also need to be seeking measurable growth in terms of customer growth, revenues and acquiring market share. We are aiming to attract and strategically engage with 200 AI start-ups by this year. Specific AI technologies that their solutions or products should be rooted in can include NLP, Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Deep Learning.” 

Revv Up is geared towards building strong and strategic partnerships with industry and the investor community. Subject matter experts will be on hand to mentor start-ups and conduct programmes like workshops and masterclasses on a host of topics, such as ‘go-to-market strategies’ and ‘intellectual property,’ ‘investor roundtables’ and ‘PoC opportunities’ with the government and industry. 

[Researched and written by Nishant Mishra]

  Artificial Intelligence, development, India, Media, telangana