Under the Government Order (GO) issued in July 2021 by ITE&C Department of the State Government to support the Innovations and Startups with Rural Impact with a total of Rs 30 lakhs for Seed, Prototype, Pilot, and Procurement Grants.

Named as Telangana State Innovations for Rural Impact Incentives (TSIRII) and hosted by Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), they aim to augment market-viable innovations/startups with grassroots impact, at various stages to next level through financial support. The incentives will scale a proof of concept to prototype, prototype to MVP, MVP to market-ready, and for product trials & pilot projects.

One of the major criteria is that the innovation or startup should either be based of the state or should be devised fully within the state. Complete criteria can be found on https://teamtsic.telangana.gov.in/tsiri-incentives/

Applications received will be evaluated by the Grassroots Advisory Council established by TSIC, a state-established entity that also looks after the applications process and release of funds.

Dr. Shanta Thoutam, Chief Innovation Officer to the State, said, “In the last few years, of the many support mechanisms established for innovations with Rural Impact, we have realized that financial support was a common ask for all of them at every stage; for an idea to become prototype and likewise a product to perform a pilot study. The Telangana State Government went a mile ahead and released a G.O. dated July 27, 2021, making TSIC as the nodal agency to extend incentives for Innovations and Startups with Rural Impact with an initial corpus fund of Rs 30 lakhs. We with expertise in Grassroots Innovation believe that such specific support would augment Innovators and Startups to efficiently disseminate their solutions for improving rural lives.”

Applicable innovations/Startups are encouraged to apply and leverage the support at https://teamtsic.telangana.gov.in/tsiri-incentives/