CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government's ambitious iTNT Hub, aimed to spur innovation, networking and bridging industry-academia, is expected to open within the end of next week, according to sources in the Tamil Nadu IT department. Civil works are almost complete and the unveiling of the hub will coincide with the Umagine summit (March 23- 25), officials said.
The hub will nurture startups in niche areas of deep and emerging technologies like web3, augmented and virtual reality (AR-VR), applied artificial intelligence, clean tech, energy and mobility. It will also focus on non-tech startups in retail, life sciences, and manufacturing sectors, among other areas.
"Old boundaries of IT are not applicable as digital infrastructure is an integral part of every sector now," said Vijay Anand, CEO of iTNT Hub. "We have mapped 69 centres of excellence, incubators, 77 premier research institutions and educational institutions," he added. 90 colleges will be part of the hub in the 1st phase. Around 260 startups have applied to be part of the hub.
"We're planning to launch it as a hub and spoke model, where centres will be established across the state, focusing on AI, IoT, data analytics, drones," information technology minister Mano Thangaraj told TNIE. Startups will get exposure from international collaborations with country-level and corporates, he added.
The hub's role includes incubation, acceleration, a venture studio, innovation networking, prototype design and manufacturing studio, along with international collaborations. So far, UK, Australia, Israel, UAE and Connecticut in the US have agreed for a mutual market access programme while officials are in talks to set up residential entrepreneur programmes.
Implemented as a PPP model, the Centre has spent Rs 27 crore, state government `20 crore and `16 crore contributed by the industry. The 30,000 sq.ft. facility at the Anna University campus has design and prototype development facility, office space for mature startups, public interaction area, international pavilion for startups from abroad, AR-VR studio for Web3 startups and other amenities.
International players and Indian MNCs are also showing interest in building experiential products based on 5G, people, officials said. "The ultimate goal of iTNT Hub is to produce high-value products and services with higher revenue per employee (RPE). Only when the innovation index starts going up will RPE go up and companies have command over pricing," said Vijay Anand.
Shifting from selling commodity products or services as a cheaper alternative to premium products/ services with innovation quotient is the idea, he added.