Support to Rural Innovators
Definition of Rural Innovation/Technology
Rural technologies are technologies developed by/ arising from the rural sector or has direct applications to the rural sector, which can be upgraded and perfected for wider applications and employment generations in the rural sector.
Support to Rural Innovations through Innovation Grants
The Govt. of Kerala has introduced the Innovation Grant scheme to provide financial assistance to startups and entrepreneurs to help them convert their innovative ideas into full-fledged ventures. This scheme is implemented through Kerala Startup Mission, which is the nodal agency of Govt. of Kerala for startup-related activities and schemes.
Innovation grants are not prize money for having an idea. The purpose of the grant is to help innovators develop the prototype or product and set up startups.
This scheme is made available to ideas belonging to the Grassroot Innovations and Rural Innovations.
Support to Rural Innovations through Green Innovation Fund Program
Green Innovation Fund (GIF) is a one of it’s kind program exclusively for Impact startups working inline with Sustainable Development Goals and looking to pilot and scale up their product with expertise from UNDP and KSUM. GIF is a joint initiative by KSUM, Haritha Keralam Mission and UNDP India under the GoI-GEF-UNDP India High Range Mountain Landscape project (IHRML), aimed at developing technology based products addressing the gaps in the High Range areas.
Promoting Rural Innovations in the State
While most investors and startups are focussed on urban India, the potential of rural innovation has long gone untapped. According to IBEF, India is home to about 650K villages, which have a population of about 850 Mn consumers. These consumers make up for about 70% of the population and contribute to around half of the country’s GDP. Realising the vast potential in rural India, many stakeholders are slowly shifting their focus.
The Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) is an autonomous body under the Government of Kerala, constituted in November 2002 to be an agency for change and development through Science and Technology. KSCSTE is the first State S&T Council in India, formed by synergistically amalgamating all the R&D Centres attached with erstwhile STEC in the Kerala State and aiming primarily to meet the developmental needs of the State through effective R&D interface. Accordingly, KSCSTE remould and engineer S&T sector as a catalyst in promoting a development process for socio-economic development of the State.
KSCSTE offers various schemes and programs and following are the flagship events under KSCSTE in promoting Grassroot Innovations
