Pitch in the ring: 21 innovators from rural Telangana get funding interests

HYDERABAD: Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana organized "Pitch In The Ring," a novel platform that bought together the top 21 rural innovators from various districts of Telangana and ecosystem stakeholders including Incubators, Corporates, CSRs, Investors, NGOs etc. It was organized to enable these innovators pitch in the lightning format to the stakeholders and gauge their interest to support them along the lines of mentorship, funding, piloting, Intellectual Property (IP) support, market-access, prototype and product development.

These 21 innovators from 16 districts of Telangana are scouted by TSIC through the last four editions of its flagship program Intinta Innovator Exhibition, pitching about their solutions and the problems they could solve for various demographics of the society. The innovations were spread across seven such sectors -- agriculture, health-care and assistive technology, food, environment, sustainability, and energy industries. Since the innovators were from diverse demographics, the event was a true testimony of inclusivity.

Speaking of the event, Jayesh Ranjan said, "It is heartening to see the presence of the ecosystem to listen to the pitches of rural innovators. It also speaks of the significant growth in societal and cultural acceptance towards innovation happening at grassroots. The event is also aimed at mapping the ecosystem stakeholders to the right innovators to scale the latter."

The 21 pitches of the received Expression of Interests for 122 mentorship, 91 IP filing, 77 product validation, 70 market access, 64 pilots, 52 Transfer of Technology, and 49 funding, from the stakeholders who are firm supporters of the TSIC and the ecosystem.

Speaking of the event, Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Shanta Thoutam said "This is a one of its kind events that is conceptualized and spearheaded by TSIC with an aim to promote our innovators and help them scale up their innovations. Through this event we provided our innovators with a platform to vocalize their asks from the Innovation ecosystem, thus making the stakeholders of ecosystem very much accessible to the innovators. We are happy to receive a promising response from all the stakeholders who expressed interest in supporting our rural innovators and we plan on conducting more of such events to provide visibility to all innovators by showcasing their journeys."