Hyderabad: Taking another step to make Hyderabad the country's startup capital of the country, the Telangana government along with STPI on Saturday launched an incubation facility for startups, particularly in gaming and animation.

"Spread over 30,000 square feet in Hitec City, the IT hub, the facility has been developed at a cost of Rs.8 crore", said Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) director C.V.D. Ramprasad.

Innovation in Multimedia, Animation, Gaming & Entertainment (IMAGE), as the facility is known, can seat 232 startups/new companies in the sector.

To work under the umbrella of T-Hub, the facility will create the eco-system for the new players. The launch came exactly a month after inauguration of T-Hub, billed as the largest technology incubator in the country.

Inaugurating the facility, Telangana Information Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao said this was first step towards developing a gaming and animation city.

He said "an international conference on gaming, animation, multimedia and visual effects will be held in February next year. To coincide with the conference, the foundation stone will be laid for gaming and animation city, which will be known as IMAGE. The proposed facility will attract best of the players from across the world".

He said "with 70,000 square feet T-Hub, the city now has one lakh square feet space for startups".

The minister, who inaugurated a healthcare incubator at Indian Institute of Technology on Thursday, announced that an incubation facility for aerospace and defence will be launched soon.

He said as the next wave of growth to come from innovation, the government is laying greater emphasis on it. IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said that "a hardware incubator for the electronics industry would be announced in couple of months".

"Hyderabad will become startup capital of the country in real terms.There is no other city which is promoting startups, innovation and entrepreneurship in such a big way," he said.

The Telangana government will launch four new policies for IT, innovation, gaming and animation and hardware on December 28 during Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's visit.

IANS