Hyderabad: Considered the Biggest Start-Up Festival of India by Sri K.T. Rama Rao, Minister of IT, Government of Telangana, The August Fest, in its second edition is kicked off here in city today at HICC, Madhapur. Mr. Harpreet Singh, Secretary, ITE&C Department, Govt. of Telengana formally declared it open in a short inaugural function held Saturday morning.

Addressing the gathering immediately after its inauguration Mr. Harpreet Singh said the Telengana Government has not even completed 100days in office, but lined up  lot of plans for the state.  The state is moving fast he said Adding further he stated that Entrepreneurship is the biggest driver of economy and employment growth globally. Greater recognition and importance for entrepreneurship has been given in countries around the world. In developing entrepreneurship here, the state has lot of advantages.  The strengths of the city are presence of high quality educational institutes, most innovative product companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google are locating here. The city has presence of leading R&D organizations like IKP, DRDL.   Hyderabad is rated the 3rd best city in India for startups.  It is the second largest in terms of IT exports and ranked 3rd best city globally in LinkedIn IT talent survey – 2014. Government is committed to developing a vibrant ecosystem to foster growth of innovation and entrepreneurship in the city he informed

The event provided the launch pad for the proposed T-HUB, the biggest incubation centre which the Government of Telangana is planning to setup at IIIT Campus in Gachibowli.

One of our high priority initiatives has been developing a world class incubator, called T-Hub in the state, informed Harpreet Singh . We will build a world Class start-up hub—The T-HUB,  that will be the largest centre for start-ups and entrepreneurship activities in the country.  The government is aware of the components required for startup ecosystem such as Research Universities, Technology Commercialization, Industry, Capital and Talent he said.

The Mission and Vision is to “ Develop Telangana as the innovation and startup hub of India”. We are looking at the holistic approach to  developing the startup ecosystem. Through T-Hub we will provide different types of support services and facilities to start-ups at each stage he informed.

The Phase 1 of the T Hub will be functional by the end of the year. To begin with we will have 80,000sq ft  in area which can accommodate 600 startups and it will come up at IIIT Campus and in phase two we will move out to our own campus of 3 lakh sft where 1500 startups will be housed. This own campus may come up at Hitech city or Kokapet he said. Our  hope is that next big FB or Google will be out of Hyderabad he said.

He also announced Logo Contest for T –Hub. Show your genius by designing out T-Hub Logo he said. The Contest begins from September 5. The best logo selected will get exciting prizes.

Giving details about the event Ramesh Loganathan one of the organizers of the August Fest said the response has been overwhelming.  We have crossed more than 1600 registrations.  Most of them appear to be early stage startups.  Nearly 160 startup have applied to showcase their ideas. Off which we selected 22 for pitching. Six of those selected pitched today and remaining 16 will pitch 8 each in the morning and afternoon tomorrow. About 25 Angel Investors are also participating in the Fest.  Eight member team of investors judged the pitches. Each of the startups were given six minute for presentation and three minute for Question and Answers.  We hope at least 25 will get funded. The monies are already lined up for funding.  Each of these startups will also get feedback from the investors why or why not there were chosen or not chosen, he informed.

The buzz, energy, enablement and exposure what we planned is achieved to a very large extent, informed Ramesh Loganathan.

The city of Hyderabad is known as a BPO City.  It is also known as Technology Products City.  But, there was no positive appreciation for Start Ups.  It must be changed. This is out unstated objective behind organizing The August Fest, informed Ramesh Loganathan.

We have also created a format of a Festival in such a way that  on one side early stage startups showcase their business ideas and on the other side reputed organizations offering support eco system will exhibit their services informed Suresh Perugu one of the four founding members of the Eat Sleep and Drink startups, who conceptualized the August Fest.   The other three members include: Kiran Chowdary, Subba Raju, and Adi.

Mr.Ashok Rao, Global President of TiE spoke about the magic of innovation and the art of entrepreneurship.  Vishal Gondal  an entrepreneur and angel investor, best known as the founder and CEO of Indiagames addressed the Startups on Passion. India is a land of problems. And convert each of these problems into a billion dollars business opportunities, he told them.  Startups needs to keep three things in mind: 1. Passion, 2. Focus and 3. Team to be successful he said.

Sukanth Panigraphy, one of Bollywood’s leading art directors and production designers also addressed the early stage entrepreneurs and start-ups assembled at the Fest. He spoke about his work with waste—both electronic waste and plastic waste. He also showcased some of his works including useful art objects made out of Shopping Malls waste.  Decomposing of a single piece of plastic takes around 1000years.

He also spoke about Raghurajpur, a craftsman village in Orissa.  All the 60 plus households in the village survive on the art. They make their living out of Art. INTACH, chose the village to develop it as Orissa’s first heritage as well as a Crafts village, he informed. Taking inspiration from this village I suggest to the state government of Telangana to create eco friendly township/s, where art loves create art froms from  the waste.  Use waste to make useful art objects he said.  He also conducted a workshop for participants subsequently.

The impressive speaker line up for the two-day event was as follows.

They include:

·        One of the most inspiring Bharatanatayam/Kuchipudi exponents in the country Ananda Shankar Jayant

·        A creative artist, a specialist in Visual Effects and a budding filmmaker, award winner Phani Eggsone.

·        A name to reckon with in the world of movies; creator of a host of cartoon TV programs including Krishna cartoon series and Chhota Bheem Rajiv Chilaka.

·        A dentist-turned fashion designer, who went one step further by getting associated with designing costumes for various contemporary and classical dance choreographies: Ganesh Nallari.

·        A cricketer, former Dilip and Ranji Trophy player, wildlife conservationist, TV panellist and the nephew of the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, (the former Cricket Captain of India),  Saad Bin Jung.

·        An internationally accomplished photographer whose works have been published in Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Condensate, Elle, French, Indian and Italian Elle Decor, India Today, Tehelka, Gallerie and National Geographic: Amit Mehra.

And a college drop-out who sold vacuum cleaners, then who went on to become internationally renowned  creative directors on HP, Microsoft, Unilever, The Economist, Pepsi and MTV: Mahesh Murthy

The August Fest was born to be a two-day festival to celebrate Art and Entrepreneurship.  The goal of the platform was to provoke conversations that are meaningful and life-altering.

With this objective in mind, the (above-mentioned) thought-leaders in these two days will present their personal and professional challenges and their learnt wisdom to successfully operate in a world where entrepreneurial/artiste stereotypes are constantly being redefined.

This carnival of Art and Entrepreneurship is being staged for the very first time at such scale. With this Fest, the organisers aim at bringing the complete start-ups ecosystem in Hyderabad on to one platform. A host of organizations including TiE Hyderabad, HYSEA, NASSCOM, IIIT-H, along with a bouquet of start-ups are coming together for The August Fest.

Conceived by Eat Sleep Drink (ESD) start-ups in 2013, the second edition of August Fest is an event for start-ups and creative professionals that is also curated by the stakeholder start-ups.

The event is a convergence of several creative fields. Aimed at start-ups, soon-to-be start-ups, designers, artistes, architects, creative professionals (photography/ Short films/Indy movies/Movie technologies). Furthermore, the Fest aims to inspire and cross-stimulate its participants by leveraging the presence of so many creative artistes and entrepreneurs there.