Telangana, top research institutes launch initiative 'RICH'

Hyderabad: Telangana government today launched RICH - Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad - an initiative by the government and research establishments such as CCMB, IICT, LV Prasad Eye Institute and ICRISAT to take research work to marketable product or service. Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary formally launched the initiative in the presence of Telangana IT Minister for K T Rama Rao, and scientific advisor to the Defence Minister Sateesh Reddy among others.

Telangana principal secretary for IT and Industries Jayesh Ranjan said a fund with an initial corpus of Rs 50 crore will be created to support the research work by the scientists in various fields. The state government will allocate Rs 5 crore and the rest will be raised from investors and equity participants, Ranjan told reporters. RICH acts as platform that will link research institutions, academia and industry along with venture capitalists, angel investors and incubation centres.

RICH, headed by former Dean of Indian School of Business (ISB) Ajit Rangnekar, will initially focus on three sectors -- agriculture, defence and aerospace, and health science -- and the model will be expanded to other sectors, the official said. Reddy said the Defence Ministry is supporting research and innovation through various schemes. "Ministry of Defence is very seriously thinking that if the private sector has the capability and capacity we can go to system integration also with the government help," Reddy said. Rao on the occasion requested the Centre to set up an incubator for startups in the area of Defence research and products.