Tag: rural development

Agri Business Incubation Foundation at IIT Kharagpur conducts Start-up EXPO 2024 incubating 115 Start-ups

A total of 115 start-ups are currently being incubated, accelerated and graduated from across the country by the Agri Business Incubation Foundation (ABIF) at IIT Kharagpur. Out of 115, 37 Start-ups successfully participated in the ABIF Start-up EXPO 2024 organized from 24th – 25th October, 2024. Shri Partho Saha, CGM OFDD, NABARD, Mumbai attended the EXPO as the Chief Guest in the presence of Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur; Shri P.K Bhardwaj CGM NABARD WBRO; Prof. Madan Kumar Jha, HOD, Agriculture and Food Engineering Department and Shri K.V Iyer, Director ABIF along with other senior professors.

Shri Partho Saha, CGM OFDD, NABARD & Chief Guest of the event in his keynote address, emphasized the critical role that start-ups and entrepreneurs play in creating employment opportunities and driving the economy forward. He emphasized on strengthening the rural SME sector, increasing efficiency of rural value chains and how agri-tech start-ups play a vital role in fulfilling these mandates.

“Just like a successful movie or a symphony is a culmination of various efforts, the Start-up EXPO 2024 is a convergence initiative of IIT Kharagpur and NABARD with participation of investors, FPOs and students envisaged to make it a successful event for the ABIF supported start-ups,” remarked the Guest of Honour Shri P.K Bhardwaj, CGM West Bengal Regional Office, NABARD.

Over two days, ABIF start-ups displayed their products and services to a wide audience comprising of investors, fund managers, professors, farmers, students etc. Product based start-ups displayed their products whereas machinery and service based start-ups were displayed through audio visual. Start-ups participated in Pitch Presentation Competitions in front of an expert panel comprising of investors, professors and fund managers to acquire seed money assistance from ABIF along with expert sessions.

The host and Chief Convener of the EXPO, Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Acting Director, IIT Kharagpur highlighted the activities by IIT Kharagpur to foster entrepreneurship and the start-up ecosystem through convergence among its various incubators like ABIF, AI4ICPS, SATHI, STEP and Research Park.

“What you are doing or what you are going to do will have a great impact in making India the 3rd largest economy in the world, therefore have patience and simply remember that farmers’ prosperity is the utmost priority,” said Mr. K V Iyer, Director ABIF to the participating start-up community.

Notable winners in the graduation stage were Syangbos Living Food and Beverages Pvt Ltd, Rural Rise Agrinery LLP and Tender Buds Tea & Crafts Pvt Ltd who won the seed grant of Rs 5 lakhs. Rudranjali Innovative Agritech Pvt Ltd, Aati Pual Mushroom Pvt Ltd and Rhodotion International Pvt Ltd, were awarded with a seed grant of Rs. 1 lakh each. In the acceleration stage, Bisuddha Enterprises, Savrog Udyog Pvt Ltd, Farm Genesis Technology Pvt Ltd, Shri Charbhuja Jaivik Farm, Aqua Doctor Solutions and PR Linseed Based Products were awarded Rs. 2 lakhs each as seed money. The 1st prize of Rs 2 lakhs for the best stall went to Kaffa Kuwwa Innovations Pvt Ltd with Ramanjali Organics winning the second runner up prize of Rs 1 lakh and Anwesha Jena from Makkai with the third runner up prize of Rs. 50000.

About ABIF:

Agri Business Incubation Foundation (ABIF) is a section-8 company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 at IIT Kharagpur. Funded by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and hosted by Agricultural and Food Engineering (AgFE) Department, IIT Kharagpur, ABIF is mandated to incubate, accelerate and graduate innovative ideas in agriculture, rural development, and allied domain for creating entrepreneurs and start-ups. ABIF is dedicated to execute the graduation of 125 Incubatees over the span of 5 years in Agriculture and allied activities; transfer low cost technologies at AgFE to small and marginal farmers; transfer action oriented climate smart and low cost technologies to rural community; Direct/Indirect employment generation to 1250 rural people and disseminate technologies developed through ABICs to benefit 25,000 farmers. The initiatives by ABIF at IIT Kharagpur manifests its commitment to the service of the nation and is expected to have a lasting positive impact on the start-up ecosystem across the country.

Media Coverage :

Dainik Bhaskar Prabhat Khabar Career 360
Fast News Kolkata Hindi News Coalfield Mirror
Dainik Jagran  Times of India  Statesman

                 

Times of India                                                                                  The Statesman

        

Prabhat Khabar                                              Dainik Bhaskar                                                 Coalfield Mirror         


Inputs by: Mr. Manu Prem, CEO, ABIF, IIT Kharagpur
Email : ceoabif@iitkgp.ac.in

By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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First Lady Deputy Director for the First IIT of the Nation

It is an immense pleasure and delight to welcome Prof. Rintu Banerjee as the new Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur. Prof Banerjee has created a historical breakthrough by being the first woman to take over the charge of a Deputy Director of the first IIT of the country and the world.

Prof. Banerjee is the Founder Head and is presently the Chairperson of P K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables. She has also served as the Head of the Centre for Rural Development, Innovative and Sustainable Technology and Head of the Department of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur for 3 years. In her career span, she has held many important portfolios including Chairperson of Centre of Excellence in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition; Nodal Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand for SPARC & Coordinator for RuTAG.

Prof. Banerjee has completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology from Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur. From the beginning of her career she was engaged in industry-academy collaborative research activities. As an outcome of her research, she has transferred several technologies to different industries and have many national/international patents to her credit. Recently, she has successfully transferred her 1G & 2G Ethanol technology to the industry for commercialization.

She has published two books in the area of environmental biotechnology and OMICS Based Approaches in Plant Biotechnology. Besides that she has handled several government/private/industry sponsored projects that includes TBT, DST, ICAR, UAI, ICMR, IMPRINT, SPARC, SERB and many other multinational industries. She has visited several countries as a Visiting Professor and for various scientific collaborations that includes Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Egypt, Australia, US, Taiwan, Japan, UK, South Korea, Laos, Thailand, Dubai, Doha, Brazil, Canada, Malaysia to name a few.

Prof. Banerjee was conferred the Panjabrao Deshmukh Award for Outstanding Women Scientist from ICAR; Best Woman Bioscientist form Biotech Research Society of India; Young Scientist Award’ 94 from the Association for Food Scientists and Technologists (India); Dr. Prem Dureja Endowment; Institute Chair Professor from IIT Kharagpur; Louis Pasteur Award; Madan Mohan Malviya Award and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award. She has also received the Most Inspiring Women Engineer/Scientist for the year 2014, for the exemplary work in the field of Science & Technology by Engineering Watch, New Delhi and has more than 6000+ citations under her name.

IIT Kharagpur wishes her all the best for future endeavours.

Edited By: Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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Action Research Project for Ladies’ Toilet Facility by Mr. Mukul Khandelia & Prof. Somnath Ghosal

IIT KGP Foundation extend their hand to develop health and hygiene facilities for Gopali IM High School, Kharagpur

Just imagine going through your day without access to clean water and a toilet. This is a harsh reality that millions of Indian women face every day. The lack of proper sanitation and hygiene facilities for women in India is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed with immediate effect. Improving access to clean sanitation and providing adequate hygiene facilities in schools and workplaces will empower women and promote gender equality in respective areas of concern. In modern India, where women are driving the workforce by increasingly participating and striving for economic independence, the lack of access to basic sanitation facilities, clean water, and improper feminine hygiene is a hindrance to their growth. Not only does it affect their capability to develop, but also limit their ability to fully participate in society by increasing the rate of female dropouts from school. 

Proper toilet facilities are essential for the schools especially when we are still suffering from the abrasive effects of the pandemic. Unfortunately in India, many schools lack the adequate and safe toilets for their students. The Rural Development Centre at IIT Kharagpur conducted a survey at Gopali IM High School near Kolkata to assess the toilet facilities available for students. The survey found several critical issues that require immediate attention to ensure that students have access to safe and hygienic toilets. One of the most significant concern is the lack of toilet facilities for girls. This is a great concern for healthcare and education of the young girls as many girls tend to miss schools due to mensuration. Unfortunately many schools lack proper menstrual hygiene facilities including clean and private places for changing sanitary pads and disposal of used pads.

Funded by US-based IIT Kharagpur Alumnus Mukul Khandelia (B.Tech/CS/1998/Azad), Dr. Somnath Ghosal, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technology initiated the “Ladies Toilet Project” which stood out as an example towards changing the narrative of societal development in terms of health and hygiene. The objective of the Ladies Toilet Project, according to Dr. Ghoshal, is to build a hygienic toilet facility at one of the co-educational higher secondary schools, located in rural West Medinipur district, to address the issues of school dropouts for female students.

One of the high school student of the Gopali IM High School said, “At the time of periods when I was in school, I really had a tough time. After listening to my problems and many requests the school allowed me to go home as there was no other option. I was in a lot of pain which is why I want the school to take some actions which will make things better for all the girls.”

The student reported the lack of privacy due to the toilets location near the entry gate leading to discomfort and embarrassment for those who use it. Exposure to elements was also the another issue as the toilet lacked the roof, making it difficult to use it rainy or hot weather. Safety and privacy concerns were also prevalent as the open location can lead to harassment and assault. The toilet’s poor construction quality, inadequate ventilation insufficient lightening and unstable structures pose safety risks to the students. Additionally students with disabilities and mobility impairments face challenges with the lack of accessibility such as the absence of ramps, grab bars and other assistive devices. The toilets also lacked basic amenities like tap water, soap and hand sanitizer impacting health and hygiene of the students. Moreover limited availability of toilets led to long waiting times and over crowding particularly during peak periods like recess or lunch time.

The lack of proper sanitation facilities including running water also contributed to unhygienic toilets due to poor maintenance and irregular cleaning. Girls faced further issues from inadequate menstrual hygiene management facilities leading to social stigma  around using the toilets with many girls avoiding them all together. After the survey, it was found that the Gopali IM High School is in critical need of improving their toilet facilities to ensure the safety privacy and hygiene of their students. It also highlighted the need for awareness and education around proper hygiene and sanitation practices in schools.

Prof. Somnath Ghoshal
Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technology
IIT Kharagpur

Through this project we are trying develop girls toilet facility at Gopali IM High School to address two important issues – One is to reduce girls’ student drop-out rate from class 7 onwards and two is to increase girls’ student daily school attendance throughout the year. With the help of generous funding from Khandelia family, the Center for Rural Development and Sustainable Technology (CRDIST) at IIT Kharagpur initiated a project to improve the girls’ toilet facilities at the school. In this documentary, we showcase our baseline survey results, the challenges we faced during the initiation of the project, and the expected transformative impact of our efforts. Join us, as we demonstrate the power of Action Research Project in addressing critical social issues, like health and hygiene. We would like to propagate such initiatives more at the rural level if we get some more national and international endowment,” said Dr. Somnath Ghoshal, Assistant Professor, Centre for Rural Development and Innovative Sustainable Technology.

In West Medinipur district of West Bengal where IIT Kharagpur is located, there are 438 co-educational high schools of which 115 are girls high schools. Out of these high schools, 73 schools are located in rural areas and 42 schools are based in municipal areas. Presently, the total number of female students in higher secondary schools are more than two lakhs fifty thousand in this district. The percentage of enrolled female students (13-19 years age-group), out of the total female population of the same age group is 82 percent of the district.

Mr. Mukul Khandelia
Alumnus
B.Tech, Computer Science,1998
IIT Kharagpur

“Thanks to IIT KGP foundation, I feel privileged to be a part of this initiative which promotes the causes of women’s health and education empowering women to shape India’s future,” remarked prominent donor and KGP Alumnus Mr. Mukul Khandelia, B.Tech, Computer Science, IIT Kharagpur. Mr. Khandelia has previously established the Aruna & Ram Gopal Khandelia Innovation Award in his parent’s name at IIT KGP that supports student groups to do innovative projects related to the field of Electronic Product Design (both software and hardware).

As an initial pilot project, Prof. Ghoshal is setting up a modern toilet facility at the Gopali Indranarayan Memorial High School (H.S) which was founded in 1972. There are a total of 750 students at the school of which 370 are girls. Because of a lack of funds, the school has not been able to provide proper toilet facilities to the girls who are always at risk of getting sick due to poor hygiene.

According to the Head of the School, “The adolescent girl students at their specific periodic cycle in a month generally remain absent due to unavailability of proper toilet facilities. This has been a regular problem regarding attendance of girl students every month.”

The socio-economic condition in rural areas of the district are in dire need of financial aid since there are limited livelihood opportunities. Schools located in rural areas are being operated with inadequate and outdated infrastructures including toilets. As a result, the rate of school dropouts, particularly for female students, increases from primary to upper primary and secondary levels. The primary reasons behind this increasing school dropouts for female students are a lack of transport facilities and the deficiency in terms of hygienic toilet facilities.

The need of the hour in terms of hygiene and healthcare for women in India is to improve access to basic sanitation facilities that includes investing in infrastructure such as toilets and water wells, as well as education campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of hygiene along with providing menstrual hygiene management facilities in schools. Other important steps include increasing the number of trained healthcare providers, especially in rural and underprivileged areas, to ensure that women have access to the healthcare they need. Improving the availability and affordability of essential medicines and supplies can also help to ensure that certain conditions are treated at the early stage of treatment. Improvement in basic hygiene and healthcare is necessary to empower women by creating awareness and educating a girl child about correct hygienic measures is the only way to change the attitude of the society towards basic healthcare and hygiene. 

Join us on a journey to Gopali I M High School, Kharagpur where we uncover the harsh realities of inadequate sanitation facilities and security issues. Watch this short video about the Ladies Toilet Project produced by Prof. Ghoshal and his team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2f5CUvAdaQ.

The survey team of the Action Research Project for Ladies’ Toilet Facility comprises of Poulomi Chakraborty, Yasaswini, Sneha, Snehal, Annu Pandey, Simran, Mehak Sharma. IIT KGP Foundation would like to extend its special thanks to Neha & Mukul Khandelia and family for funding the project. The project has been supervised and executed by Dr. Somnath Ghosal, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technology, IIT Kharagpur.

Contact Person: Prof. Somnath Ghosal, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technology, IIT Kharagpur
Email : somnath@iitkgp.ac.in

By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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IIT Kharagpur inks two MoUs with AARDO & RFRF

IIT Kharagpur signed two MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) and Research for Resurgence Foundation (RFRF) on strategic collaboration and mutual cooperation in research, sharing of knowledge & resources. AARDO will cooperate with IIT KGP to achieve common objectives in the field of agriculture and rural development through technological innovations, solutions, interventions and capacity enhancement to benefit and strengthen rural societies by establishing cordial ties, strengthening cooperation and initiating an association between the two organizations for the benefit of rural communities in Africa and Asia. With RFRF, it is a strong academic collaboration by mutually undertaking joint responsibilities and activities in their respective field of excellence, research, resources, knowledge and personnel along with effective and efficient engagement towards strengthening and streamlining research in scientific and technology development, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

African-Asian Rural Development Organization, New Delhi comprises of thirty three members, including thirty one countries, developing an understanding among members for better addressal of problems and to collectively explore, opportunities towards coordinated efforts for the welfare and eradication of thirst, hunger, illiteracy, disease and poverty among the rural people in the African-Asian region. This association will recognize the need for enhancing self-reliance, economic resilience and social well-being of the people through sustainable livelihoods, quality of life, reduced drudgery through innovative machine and process development and creation of safe and healthy environment in the member countries. Both the organization will act as a forum to facilitate the exchange of views and ideas for continuing dialogues on innovative and suitable models of cooperation for agricultural and rural development.

Prof V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur remarked, “These associations will augment a holistic growth towards building an inclusive technological amalgamation enhancing self-reliance, economic flexibility, community development and sustainable ecosystem. Channelizing knowledge transfer and access to domestic innovations will strengthen rural community and build solutions for them. IIT KGP’s frontier areas of research has contributed to various domains through affordable technologies and smart solutions and it will continue to do so.”

Research for Resurgence Foundation referred to as RFR Foundation is founded by voluntary organization Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal under Bombay Public Trust. RFRF is one of the vertical of Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal working in field of education since 1969. The core objective of RFR Foundation is to bring paradigm shift in research outcome, research methodology and innovation-based technologies, ensuring Bharatiya prospective, philosophy and applicability. The RFR Foundation is a multi-domain research institute and a network hub of research and allied activities in academics and industrial sector. The areas of collaboration for both the institutes will indulge in promotion of joint entrepreneurship programmes and start-ups along with support in execution, monitoring and evaluation process of various research activities.

Prof Goutam Chakraborty, Associate Dean, International Relations stated, “Both the MoUs are very important for the development of our Institute. While the one with AARDO will help us to reach out to 31 nations through sharing of expertise enhanced by technical innovation, the other with RFRF will help to reach into the glorious past of our nation through research on Bharatiya Knowledge Systems and transform its present.

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

IIT Kharagpur to Incubate Agri-Food Startups to support Food Security

Shiksha Mantri to Flag-off Agri-Food Techathon at IIT Kharagpur to promote Agri and Food Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship

IIT Kharagpur in association with NABARD is organizing the first of its kind Agri-Food Techathon (AFT 2021), to promote the participation of India’s youth in innovation and entrepreneurship in different domains of the Agri-Food sector. AFT-2021 will be inaugurated by Hon’ble Shiksha Mantri Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on January 25, 2021. The foundation of the Agri-Business Incubation Centre will also be laid at the inaugural event, which will carry out the mandate to incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures. 

Agriculture is the largest employment vertical with a GDP share of 14%. Over the years, India has witnessed a substantial increase in yields, crop diversity due to mechanization and knowledge dissemination programmes. However, the steeping consumption due to population explosion has been a constant challenge demanding rapid progress in the agricultural sector. 

Talking about the initiative Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur opined, “While India is moving at an accelerated pace towards automation and digitization, there is a crucial need to complement it with automation in the rural livelihood and farm sector and warrant uniform progress. To achieve this goal we are reaching out to the talented youth of this country through the Agri-Food Techathon. This platform will enable them to exhibit and depict their creativity, problem-solving and prototyping-skills in Agriculture and Food Technology thus leading to indigenous product development, employment generation and fulfilment of our promise to Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

The national-level online technical fest spanned over January – March 2021, will have participation from over 750 university/college students, entrepreneurs and rural youths from across the country in the age range of 20-25 years with diverse academic background. Apart from workshops, mentorship and guest talks, AFT-2021 will host a competitive B-plan submission for the participants.

Business and technology experts in areas covering farm mechanization, AIML, IoT in agriculture, precision farming, greenhouse farming, organic farming, agricultural biotechnology, soil technology and testing, food processing, packaging and storage, food supply chain management.

Renowned professional experts from countries premier institutions like IIT Kharagpur, IARI New Delhi, CIAE Bhopal and Founders / CEOs of different successful agri-food tech startups like Sickle Foundation, Sfarms India, Fasal, Nutrigreen, Organic Farming, Cropin, B2V, Keyhti, Khadyam, Crofarm, WAycool, Villa Mart, etc. are taking part in the Sensitization Workshop of the AFT-2021.

More than 30 teams with high potential will be selected for formal association with ABIC, IIT Kharagpur. They will be offered assistance in the form of Technology and Business Development Mentorship, R&D support, Laboratory / Workshop / Pilot Plant access and Funding Opportunities through potential Investors / Accelerators. Business and technology experts from key domains of Agriculture and Food Technology will be involved as panellists and mentors. 

The event is being organized by Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technologies and Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship in association with NABARD. 

Prof. H N Mishra, Professor-in-Charge of the Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC), remarked, “At our Centre, we will facilitate the incubated startups to develop low-cost technologies and transfer them for sustainable development of rural communities. We shall further conduct hands-on training, workshops, and seminars for capacity building of farmers and unemployed rural youth.” 

Special emphasis will be given through action-oriented research to promote climate-resilient agriculture in vulnerable districts, agricultural value chains, promote farmers’ collectives, value addition, market-linkage, and risk management; also offering expert advisory services, policy advocacy including building up of human capital in rural areas. 

For more information on AFT 2021 and ABIC, please visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/agri-food-techathon-aft-2021/

Transforming Rural Economies

COVID-19 has given a clarion call for a technology-enabled world, more so in the context of the Indian rural sector which has always stayed several steps behind the urban way of living. The slow progress could be attributed to not just lack of financial resources but also towards weak communication of functional knowledge, for a large population lacking literacy (M: 80.9%, F: 64.6%), and reliance on western technologies failing to cater to the requirements of the rural population of India. Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have come forward to bridge this gap by rolling out farming technologies as well as non-farming technologies for rural employment. 

Talking about this initiative, Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Virendra Tewari said,

“The Government of India offers huge subsidies for mechanization of the rural sector, but the farm machinery sector has not invested significantly in creating a market for indigenous technologies  addressing the burning need of the Indian rural sector.  Experts at IIT Kharagpur are answering this challenge by designing technologies well suited for the livelihood of the rural class of our country.”

The Institute, through its Precision Farming Development Centre, Farm Implements and Machinery and Rural Technology Action Group projects, has developed and deployed farm machinery including ranging from micro-irrigation, combined harvester, crop and vegetable planters, solar energy operated transplanters, groundnut diggers, ultrasonic sprayers. Further non-farming livelihood technologies for rural small-scale and cottage industries have been mechanized. To name a few, Dhenki, Potter Wheel, Jute Rope making, Door Mat making, Amber Charkha, Rice Flaking. The initiative also includes social impact technologies such as Smokeless Chullahs, Rural Drinking Water Facility. 

Prof Kamlesh Tiwari, one of the lead researchers in this program confirmed the training of around 2500 farmers from nearby villages of West Bengal and Odisha in micro-irrigation and protected cultivation structures. Several farmers who adopted these farm machinery and farm equipment reported a decrease in labor cost, reduction in the cost of cultivation, timeliness operations, improvement in pulverization, increase in soil fertility and production. Mr. Karthik Maity, from Hurnal village of Purba Medinipur and Subratha Mahesh from the Gurgram village of Paschim Medinipur, expressed their delight over their enhanced yield due to the technologies they adopted and the increased profits. 

Further, outreach programs were organized by the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering and the Rural Development Centre to communicate, train rural people and help their transition to mechanized farming and livelihoods. IIT Kharagpur has extensively mobilized the funding available under national mission projects like ‘National Initiative for Design Innovation’ and ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ towards achieving this goal. 

“We are ensuring the technologies are being implemented either in their farms or being adopted to generate employment through startups, setting up self-help groups. The livelihood technology adoption program witnessed significant acceptance in three North Eastern states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura as well as in several districts of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,”  Prof. Kamlesh Tiwari said.

Earlier this year, the India Brand Equity Foundation, an initiative of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, had estimated the gross value to be added by the rural sector, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, at ₹20 trillion approximately with a dominant employment share of 58%. Also, in May, the Finance Ministry had announced an economic stimulus of ₹1.5 trillion to boost agricultural infrastructure and logistics and ₹400 billion was allocated for the rural employment guarantee scheme. Referring to this Director, Prof. Virendra Tewari further emphasized on the strategic importance of such technology development.

He remarked, “While India is moving at an accelerated pace towards digitization, there is a crucial need to complement it with automation in the rural livelihood and farming sector and warrant a uniform progress. Such transition in rural livelihood will not only increase productivity and earnings manifold but will also lead to capacity building for rural and cottage industries, improved product quality, increased employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas.” 

Media Coverage:

Business Insider       Outlook        Republic World         Dainik Jagran        NDTV         Patrika           Hindustan Times

Contacts:

Project Information: Prof. Kamlesh N Tiwari, kamlesh@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; 

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

Reaching Out to Rural Community

IIT Kharagpur Reaches out to Village Youth at the Agri Food Expo 2020 for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Rural Technologies

with contributions from Guru Sanjeev Kumar

The Dept. of Agriculture & Food Engineering organized the Agri Food Expo 2020 during February 14-16, 2020, under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme of the Government of India. A Workshop on Technologies for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was conducted wherein 300 participants from West Bengal and neighbouring states were trained. The workshop was primarily targeted towards unemployed rural youth who at least have a college degree and a zeal to undertake livelihood projects. The participants included representatives from 34 colleges, and district officers from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.

The areas of training involved Operation, Maintenance and Repair of Farm Machinery & Farm Implements, Green House and Drip Irrigation Technology, Soil Testing, Vermi-composting Technology & Organic Farming, Rice milling & Rice puffing Technology, Food Processing and Preservation Technology, Effective Storage techniques for Fruits and Vegetables, Solar Technology, Extrusion Technology, Bio-fertilizers and Bio-pesticide Production Technology from Organic Wastes, Water Quality Measurement, Bee Keeping (Apiculture), Mushroom Farming, Betel Leaf Technology and various other Rural Technologies.

The participants visited the research laboratories at the Institute and Experimental Farms, Rural Energy Park and Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Park for demonstrations machineries, processes and food processing technologies developed by IIT Kharagpur and various industries. Lectures and discussions were also held in these areas.

A key concern of the participants regarding challenges by the rural community in adapting to new technologies was a point of discussion.

Prof. P B S Bhadoria, coordinator of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan at IIT Kharagpur said, “in recent years introduction of technologies has led to economic empowerment and improved livelihood of rural community. This has been achieved by means of outreach initiatives through various colleges.” 

The inaugural ceremony was attended by prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. B N Singh, Registrar, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Vivek Kumar from IIT Delhi, Prof. Aditya Bandyopadhyay from IIT Kharagpur and many others.

IIT KGP Faculty Makes Purified Drinking Water Available for Rs. 1

Times of India    India Today    Business Standard   Millennium Post    Navbharat Times    NDTV    ABP News    ABP News Twitter   Indian Express   Jagran Josh  EiSamay

Faculty from IIT KGP has developed a model for purified drinking water supply, costing Rs. 1 per family per day, for a village in Southern Bengal. Dr. Somnath Ghosal from the Rural Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur has involved participatory management offering villagers access to purified drinking water in a sustainable manner, using Water Cards, Water ATM Vending Machine, etc.

The unique set-up has been built in the Porapara village in West Midnapore district of Bengal. He has installed a fully automated multi filtered UV treated drinking water facility which can provide close to 1000 litres of purified drinking water to 60 families every day at Rs. 1 per family. While the land was freely provided by the villages, IIT KGP helped built the required infrastructure and water purification technologies and funded the entire project.

With water borne diseases and the cost of medical treatment, Dr. Ghosal took to the task of making the villagers understand the need for the water filtration unit. “It has been my dream to build up a project that involved community participation,” he said. Since such self-managed purification units require little intervention in maintenance, they require one-time investments that can become part of the CSR initiatives of both public and private enterprises. “We will be happy to do more such things through CSR Funding since the Technology and Process is now well demonstrated in this Pilot Project” added Dr. Ghosal.

The land on which the filtration unit has been installed was donated by a villager, Kshitij Mahato. In other words, it stands on land owned by a villager. The entire operation of the unit, its upkeep and daily management, is done by the villagers who have formed three committees to manage the operations. It is thus an ‘install and self-operate’ arrangement. The current, and future, financial needs are to be met by the villagers from the funds collected in the form of the daily payment (Rs 1 per family per day) for the purified water. A 17-year-old boy, Dhananjay Mahato along with three other youngsters, is in charge of the daily running of the filtration unit and the daily dispensing of filtered water from 5.30 to 8 AM. Full community participation becomes possible only if villagers have a sense of ownership over a project.

“None of this would have happened had they not placed their faith in us and trusted their own abilities. The land belongs to the villagers. They alone are now responsible for the proper functioning of the project,” remarked Dr. Ghosal. He no longer takes any part in the running of the filtration unit. In fact, he takes prior permission of the villagers before visiting the site.