Enterprising and young, V. Abhipriti Sanjana, a fourth year B.Tech student of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kukatpally, is involved in the promising project of J-Hub — the incubator for the university and its affiliated colleges, which is set to launch soon. Giving an update about it, the principal of JNTU-H, Dr A. Govardhan, says, “The business model is in place and plans for the building are underway and the construction will start soon.”
“The university built an ideation centre with beautiful interiors in the campus, which will also be part of the incubator. When we will launch the incubator during the university’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, the virtual incubator will start off with offline activities like Hackathons and B-plan events,” Sanjana adds. “Spread over an area of more than 3,000 sq. ft.,” Govardhan says, “the idea has been garnering a lot of positive response.”
About how it all started, Sanjana says, “We were observing how T-Hub was doing, and many students and alumni are already working on start-ups. So, the principal was telling me about this idea, and the Vice Chancellor (A. Venugopal Reddy) and board members took it forward. The challenges that we could face are availability of funds and participation of the students.” Being a part of a project this large is no piece of cake and, Sanjana seems to be the perfect fit. The 20-year-old is a complete go-getter and calls herself a “collaborator”.
“I want to effect change and give something back to the nation,” says Sanjana, who has taken part in as many as 16 to 20 MUNs around the country and abroad, having even won the best delegate award in an MUN in London. She also organised the first JNTU MUN. “I like my opinions to be heard and affect a change in society. I gave a TEDx talk on ‘Growing without Gender Barriers’, in April 2017, because through experience and observation, I’ve noticed that women who are successful also make a lot of enemies and in the corporate set-up, the higher the rung, the fewer women there are. I addressed this in my 11-minute talk and the response was great!” she says, adding that she also got through the first round of selection for an upcoming TEDx event in Australia.
About the incubator, she further explains, “This is exclusively for students and alumni of JNTU, but for events, outsiders are also invited. Some alumni who have start-ups have already expressed their wish to guide their juniors. We will start conducting events soon. We will also launch the event calendar during the ceremony,” she concludes.
