The Telangana State Innovation Cell, set up under the leadership of the Hon’ble Minister for IT KT Rama Rao last year, has launched a first-of-its-kind fellowship program to attract young professionals from diverse background to work with the Government in driving innovation in the State. The first cohort of Innovation Fellows was inducted, and the program was formally launched by the Minister today.
The Telangana State Innovation Cell has invited several partners including Ashoka Innovators for the Public (Ashoka.org) to build the culture of change making in the state.
The Fellowship Program is a one-year program, conceptualized to enable visionary and motivated professionals to work with the Government, towards the vision of building an innovation-driven economy in the State.
The selection process was highly competitive where less than 1% of the applicants made it to the final selection. The candidates have been selected based on an extensive process including resume shortlisting, essay evaluation, and personal interviews.
The cohort includes Entrepreneurs, Engineers, Social development professionals, students from journalism and arts and a lawyer with each of them having their own ideas to nurture the culture of innovation in the State.
A few projects the Innovation Fellows are leading include working with schools to promote a culture of innovative thinking, kick starting innovation and entrepreneurship activity at District level, promoting startup incubators, creating mentor ecosystem and promoting grass-root innovators.
Minister of ITE&C, Industries & Commerce, NRI Affairs, and MA&UD Sri K. T Rama Rao, said, “In today’s world, innovation is of prime significance. Innovation improves the quality of life by improving productivity, reducing cost, and increasing wages.
Countries that have nurtured innovation in their societies have leapfrogged their economies and quality of life. Telangana Government is committed to building a strong innovation-driven economy in the State. With this in mind, we launched the State Innovation Cell, which is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country.
The State Innovation Cell’s goal is to make Telangana a land of innovators, just like Gujarat is known as a land of businessmen. The Cell will work towards building strong awareness about the importance of innovation, and I hope this will result in creating at least one innovator in each family.
