It is said that our thoughts are seeds that can grow into a huge tree when nurtured and
developed. The idea of ā hub started as such a seed.
In early 2021, the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University (AU), Prof. P.V.G.D.Prasad Reddy,
and the Registrar, Prof. V. Krishna Mohan, thought of promoting innovation in the
University. The university with a history of towering personalities was not getting it's due
recognition. In order to improve the quality of education imparted to students and to
attract increasingly better people to be a part of AU, they felt the need to add innovation
to academic rigour and higher research output. They searched in their network and chanced
upon Ravi Eswarapu.Maybe it was destiny, after all Vizag is also called the City of Destiny,
but Ravi Eswarapu was completing his exit from the IT and ITeS firms that he was a part of.
A plan was developed after much deliberation and it was put in motion by Mr. Eswarapu. A
Section 8 company was formed with the name of Andhra University Incubation Council. An old
building, Gandhi Bhavan, that many engineering students of yesteryear fondly remember, was
being used as a COVID-19 containnment center.
Once it was vacated, construction started to build a four-story building. Within a year, by
April 2022, startups and companies were being onboarded to the incubation center. Mr.
Eswarapu came up with the name of ā hub, taking a cue from the T-hub, our neighbourhood
state's famous incubation center. The "ā" in "ā hub" was also chosen to incorporate the
first letter of Andhra Pradesh and Andhra University when they are written in Telugu (ఆంధ్ర
ప్రదేశ్, ఆంధ్ర విశ్వవిద్యాలయం) and అమ్మ.
Today, ā hub is a thriving center of entrepreneurial activity housing 90+ startups and
businesses and providing direct employment to over 500 people. So much so that there is a
waiting list of 30+ companies and 300+ employees. Expansion plans are being put in place by
developing additional space across the university. By 2025, ā hub will have a total of
2,00,000 square feet of space spread across multiple buildings and fields. It will then
become India's largest multi-field university-based incubator.
