HYDERABAD: On the lines of the recently launched start-up incubation centre T-Hub, another exclusively for innovation in healthcare industry would come up at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad campus.
Named ‘Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CHE), the new incubation centre is aimed at encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of healthcare system. It will involve engineers, venture capitalists, doctors and healthcare firms in the project.
On Thursday, IT minister KT Rama Rao inaugurated the CHE at an event. Speaking at the inaugural function, he said that a healthcare incubation centre was the need of the hour. KTR expressed hope that the CHE would pave way to a new era of innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare industry.
Funded by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and IIT Bombay alumni, Raj Mashurwala and Avi Nash Manudhane, the CHE would open doors for the students of IIT-Hyderabad to launch their start-up projects in the field.
“Initially the centre would be open only to IIT-Hyderabad students. Based on the progress, we will expand it to students from other institutes as well,” said Prof UB Desai, Director, IIT-Hyderabad.
Irrespective of their course and academic year, any student can walk into the centre and develop their ideas into a potential company, he added.
Explaining the reason for preferring Hyderabad over other metro cities in India, one of the sponsors, Raj Mashurwala, said, “Hyderabad has a full ecosystem from healthcare facility, engineering, entrepreneurial talent and infrastructure to operate the centre.”
Around 2,000 students, over 150 faculty members and high-standard infrastructure at IIT, Hyderabad, are the added advantage to the CHE, he added.
Another sponsor, Avi Nash said, “Hyderabad is hub of multiple industries. The existing infrastructure and skilled human resources here will help us bring a change in healthcare system.”
Nasscom Chairman, BVR Mohan Reddy, who was also present at the event, urged the government to make innovation a part of the education system.
TS to digitise public’s health record
For the first time in India, the Telangana government is planning to prepare a massive healthcare data of nearly 3.6 crore population in the State. KTR on Thursday said that the government is working on a pilot project that aims at digitising the health record of public. The project might be launched from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s constituency, Gajwel. The data would be linked to Aadhar Card so that the public healthcare centers can directly access the health record of any patient. In a move to encourage entrepreneurs, the government is also planning to have an innovation fund in the next budget allocation, he added. This apart, KTR also announced that a gaming and animation incubation centre would be set up in the T-Hub soon. It is expected to be launched on December 5, he said.