Nasscom opens warehousing facility for T-Hub startups in Hyderabad

Nasscom will offer warehousing facility for start-ups from Hyderabad's T-Hub, a public-private partnership between the Telangana government and some private entities, to provide an affordable co-working space to the young entrepreneurs.

T-Hub Nasscom Startup Warehouse would address the concerns of young entrepreneurs helping them build the right product for the market and offering them a platform to emerge stronger players, Nasscom chairman BVR Mohan Reddy said in a statement.

T-Hub partners Telangana government, Indian School of Business (ISB), International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) and some other private sector entities.

T-Hub also announced a $100 million (around Rs676 crore) venture capital fund, according to Nasscom.

Nasscom said the idea of setting up warehousing facility is to create a micro ecosystem where start-ups and entrepreneurs can work together and share experiences.

Under the 'Nasscom 10,000 Startups' initiative, the industry body is setting up 'warehouses' across Indian states. The first startup warehouse was set up in Bengaluru in 2013, followed by Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, and Gurgaon.

"Nasscom 10,000 startup programme is now looking to launch this facility in other emerging cities in partnership with their respective governments," says the Nasscom statement.

Nasscom's Bengaluru warehouse, meanwhile, expanded from 10,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft in keeping with the response from emerging entrepreneurs.

According to Nasscom report 'Start-up India - Momentous Rise of the Indian Start-up Ecosystem', Hyderabad is one of the emerging cities.

Addressing the gathering, Nasscom president R Chandrashekar said start-ups will play an important role in employment generation and will offer solutions to some sectors such as education, healthcare and energy in the country.

But, he said, the IT industry needs to look for "new opportunities" amidst various problems and challenges facing the sector.

"Yes there are problems and challenges. At the same time there are new opportunities available. As the Indian IT industry has been involved in more than 80 countries, the prospects for the industry are still quite strong...having said that it is not the same opportunity as before and the companies have to make a lot of changes to be able to address the new opportunities," Chandrasekhar said on the sidelines of the Nasscom event.

On the budget wish list, the Nasscom chief said the industry is awaiting fine print of many tax related issues during the upcoming Union budget.

Meanwhile, the Telengana government mooted course credits for school children ad college students who come up with innovative ideas or show business skills.

The Telangana government wants to consider even school children with new idea as an asset. Schools in the state will soon have a system in place where students who come up with innovative ideas or exhibit entrepreneurial skills will be awarded with course credits, IT and Panchayat Raj minister KT Rama Rao said at the function.

''After Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Quotient, it is now the turn of Cultural Quotient,'' felt the minister. ''After students complete their tenth standard, parents in our country want their children to take up maths or biology and science. It is too early for children to take a decision and if they want to take a detour in the middle of their course like becoming an entrepreneur, then it is not accepted.''

Rao said that the course credits system will give merit to the thoughts of the schoolchildren to take forward their ideas and interest in the field of entrepreneurship.

The IT minister also informed that the much-awaited Telangana IT policy will be unveiled in the second week of February.