Fired staff can set up biz: TS

With the threat of layoffs hanging over techies of M-Level and senior ranks, the Telangana government is suggesting that they focus on start-ups to overcome this crisis.

With decisions by the Trump government that minimum salaries of H1B visa holders should be more than $1,35,000 per annum and compulsory recruitments of US citizens should be done along with the poor growth rate in the recent fiscal, companies are going in for what they call “performancebased removals”.

At present, there is a threat to those drawing salaries more than `24 lakh per annum in India (Level-3 to Level-6 employees).

Telangana IT department principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan said that the state government had already introduced its Telangana Innovation Policy, which could assist start-up groups in financial and marketing aspects apart from providing incentives. “We have a T-Hub with space for 900 incubators and we will assist outside start-up groups as per the IT Policy and Innovation Policy,” he said.

Explaining the failures of start-ups, he said, “Due to lack of proper idea and implementation, most start-ups are failing. But we are supporting start-up groups in such areas by providing mentor assistance, proper guidance, incentives and marketing facilities. Techies, who have completed Level-3 in any company and have an idea, can reach out to the Telangana government for help in fulfilling their dreams. The experience of manager, assistant director, director, vice president and president-level techies can be reflected in start-ups.”

Explaining how failure can lead to success, Mr. Ranjan said, “Mr Jaya Krishnan failed in his first start-up and got bitter results in his second experiment. But his third attempt was successful and Tata adopted his innovation, making him a millionaire. We have recruited him as the CEO for the T-Hub. Under his supervision, several start-ups have succeeded.”

He said the Telangana government is planning to establish Technology Start-up City.

“Start-up groups will be given fund-of-funds under our innovation policy. A fund-of-funds will be set up, drawing upon lessons from global leaders such as Singapore. The government will actively invest with matching capital in select Venture Capital (VCs) with significant potential. These investors will be selected based on criteria, through an exhaustive process that will be rolled out,” the IT secretary said.

In addition, there will also be T-SEED fund-tofund startups in the seed stage. This fund, with an initial size of `250 crore, is aimed at encouraging innovators who need early stage funding to work on research, discoveries, college project ideas etc. Besides this, the government will introduce ‘Phoenix Fund’ to encourage start-ups,” Mr. Ranjan said.