Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre India firmed up its engagement with Hyderabad on Wednesday with formal opening of a satellite office, focused on work in the information service and technology space, and extension of a strategic partnership with technology start-up incubator T-Hub.
“We are starting small, have around 70 people at the satellite office with plans to take the number to 200 over one year,” managing director Debashis Neogi said in response to queries at the signing of the partnership with T-Hub.
On skill sets it will look for, he said it will be primarily onboarding information system and technology professionals working on enterprise solutions and tech that goes into the autonomous driving. The centre will work both on the product side and services side.
“The team [here] will work on some advanced technologies,” he said, adding that the office will help attract talent in and around Hyderabad. Mid term growth plans for next three years were being evaluated, he said.
The partnership with T-Hub is for a corporate innovation programme to connect start-ups with leading industry experts, provide proof-of-concept grants and facilitate engagement with start-ups for industry-driven use cases.
“Delighted to join forces with Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre India to foster innovation and empower start-ups,” T-Hub CEO M. Srinivas Rao said, adding it will be one year soon since the incubator moved into its present over 5.82 lakh sq ft swanky premises in the heart of Hyderabad’s hub for technology firms.
One year of T-Hub 2.0
Six of the 10 floors have been furnished and taken up, while the rest are expected to be ready by first quarter of 2024. As many as 320 start-ups are operating from the building and with the reimagining of T-Hub programmes post pandemic, some 230 more are engaged with in phygital mode. “We have a large waiting list... 500 start-ups want to come here,” said Mr. Rao, pointing to how other ecosystem stakeholders, including seven venture capital firms, two large banks and a clutch of centres of excellence are in T-Hub.
The CoEs on the cards include a national centre for AI/ML to be set up by the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology; the facility of a financial services regulator; a corporate CoE of Apollo Tyres; and a centre of a large European country to facilitate bilateral start-up exchange.
New CIO
T-Hub also announced appointment of Sujit Jagirdar as the Chief Innovation Officer. He has over 20 years of experience in IT and business process consulting, digital transformation rollouts and designing innovative solutions.
