Kakatiya Hub, a rural incubator of its kind

Telangana, country’s newest and 29th state, is not only proving to be a successful economy, but also carving a niche for itself in innovation in bringing technology to rural areas.

Kakatiya Hub is one such measure that aims at creating entrepreneurship among rural youth. Telangana government recently launched Kakatiya Hub, which is country’s first social innovation center in Nizamabad.

Rural entrepreneurship is totally neglected in the country and bridging this gap, Kaktiya Hub for Social Innovation aims at encouraging entrepreneurship in the rural areas.

Kakatiya Sandbox, an initiative of not-for-profit Deshpande Foundation and a few successful entrepreneurs to encourage rural innovations and inventions.

Kakatiya Hub is expected to be a torch bearer for the country’s neglected two-third of the country’s population living in rural areas.

Centre and state governments totally neglected the building entrepreneurship zeal among the youth for over the several decades. As a result, there’s increased competition for jobs, but not much focus on building employers.

Jayesh Ranjan, Telangana IT secretary, said: “The Kakatiya Hub for Social Innovation is envisaged to function like a rural incubator to encourage entrepreneurship at the grassroots level. It will tap innovation-oriented talent from the rural as well as semi-urban areas.”

However, there’re several problems, adds Ranjan.
Highlighting the need of focused activity to build entrepreneurship in the rural areas, Ranjan explains: “There are a large number of problems to be solved in rural areas and the people who are familiar with them should be in the best position to solve them.

However, rural entrepreneurs need a structured guidance and an incubator is the best way of providing a necessary ecosystem and to support them.”

Recently he attended a one-day Development Dialogue, an international social entrepreneurship ecosystem conference, organised by Kakatiya Sandbox in Nizamabad.

Speaking at the conference, Ranjan said that the Telangana government would ensure that the rural incubator would be run exactly in the fashion as any other high-end incubator like the T-Hub in Hyderabad.

Raju Reddy, Indian-American entrepreneur, co-founder of Kakatiya Sandbox, Dr Deshpande, founder of Deshpande Foundation, Redbus founder Phanindra Sama, who is also the co-founder of Kakatiya Sandbox, welcomed the government’s decision to implement the rural incubator in Nizamabad.

The move is expected to create a model for promoting entrepreneurs in rural and semi-urban areas in the country, they opined.

Dr. Deshpande said: “People from poor economic background face several challenges as they’re helpless. They tend to complain. But those in vibrant communities see opportunities in such problems. They try to solve them. This is what we call entrepreneurship.”