After leaving their lofty jobs in Microsoft, Arun Kumar and Ashutosh launched their startup named Urban Brain Technologies, which aimed to resolve the traffic congestion problem existing in top-level cities using AI. They are ready to reveal their pilot as they have recently graduated from the innovation to entrepreneurship lab, ‘i2e Lab’, run by the TSIC (Telangana State Innovation Cell) and Make Room India. 

They were a part of the eight teams that came up with plans of social innovation that can resolve the day-to-day problems faced by the public by the use of technology. The participants of the four-month-long program have discovered ways to address mental health issues in students, address primary dysmenorrhea, curtail air pollution, and found imaginative ways for farm mechanization and even using the Internet of Things (IoT) to aid farmers in growing mushrooms. 

According to Arun, traffic congestion impacts any state or country economically. He reveals that according to a study, Hyderabad people waste 40 crore hours per day in travel leading to a loss in productivity. In addition, people here spend Rs 3,000 crore annually on petrol. Add to it the money spent by governments on building skyways and highways; they felt the perfect solution was to use Artificial Intelligence by monitoring CCTV cameras to operate traffic lights on roads. 

Annie Vijaya, Head-Sustainability Office, TSIC, says, “To make Telangana a hub for trouble-solvers, we believe i2e Lab’s focused approach in bringing in the resources and connecting it to opportunities with the government is the greatest benefit of the program.”