As Andhra Pradesh is divided into two States in June this year, all of the IT industry remained in Telangana, leaving the residual Andhra Pradesh with a small portion of the pie.

But the sluggish growth in the economy and IT industry left both the States look for newer models to fuel employment generation.

Creating jobs Both find the fledgling start-up movement a way out to produce jobs and give a boost to the economy. While the Telangana government has announced a T-Hub plan, promising it to be the mother of start-up incubators, the Andhra Pradesh government has started a similar initiative in Visakhapatnam.

Engaging Nasscom Nasscom Vice-Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy has said that 60 per cent of all net additions to jobs in the IT industry in the US come from start-ups.

“The remaining 40 per cent jobs are added by the existing IT firms,” he said, emphasising the need for a strong start-up ecosystem in the country.

Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have acknowledged this fact.

The two governments are engaging Nasscom, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad), Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association (HYSEA) and Indian School of Business (ISB) to connect with the start-ups.

The Andhra Pradesh government is setting up a start-up village with the help of promoters of the first ever integrated facility in the country for tiny technology firms located in Kochi.

“We would like to create an innovation fund to invest in ventures incubated in the State. They will be provided with shared infrastructure at a nominal cost,” a senior AP Government official tells.

Telagana Information Technology Minister K Taraka Rama Rao, who is working with IIIT (Hyderabad) and ISB to set up the T-Hub, said the first phase of the project would commence in the next few weeks out of a facility at the institute’s Gachibowli facility.

Hackathons With a view to encouraging start-ups, the Telangana government has organised hackathons, asking the young innovators to come up with apps (applications) that can improve quality of life in cities.

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