20 social innovators honoured at Millennium Alliance Awards ceremony
Updated: Nov 25, 2014 05:00:31pm
New Delhi, Nov 25 (KNN) Union Minister, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, today felicitated 20 innovators who were awarded a total funding of approximately Rs 20 crore under the focus sectors of basic education, affordable healthcare, agriculture/food security, clean energy, and water and sanitation.
The Millennium Alliance Awards Ceremony was organised here by FICCI in association with Technology Development Board (Department of Science and Technology, Government of India), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID) of UK, ICCO Cooperation, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth and Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Health (WISH), according to an official release.
The innovations were selected through a rigorous selection and evaluation process of over 1400 proposals received as a result of pan-India outreach supported through 40 roadshows in tier I, II and III cities.
The winning innovators will receive seed funding and other support to test and demonstrate their projects which were selected based on their potential to improve the quality of life for low-income populations in India, South Asia and Africa. The awardees are implementing their initiatives across India and beyond, including in Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Haryana, and in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia.
The Millennium Alliance is an inclusive and diverse platform to leverage Indian creativity, expertise and resources to identify, support, and scale innovative solutions being developed and tested in India to address development challenges that will benefit low-income populations across India and the world.
A social innovation expo was also featured during the awards ceremony.
Delivering his keynote address at the ceremony, Gadkari said that Millennium Alliance provides the right platform for encouraging innovators and scaling up their innovations.
Considering that India is a land of innovators and that most innovations go unnoticed, he urged the Millennium alliance partners and industry to identify innovators from rural India as well and provide them the necessary resources. A case in point, he said was Ahmedabad where there were almost 20,000 innovations waiting for recognition at the national and global level.
He also spoke about the government’s initiative of electronic toll collection (ETC) which will be implemented across the 350 toll booths that exist in India at present. ETC is bound to reduce traffic jams on toll plazas, save fuel and reduce pollution.
He urged FICCI to create a bank of innovations and ideas to eradicate poverty and take India to the path of economic growth. It was important to invest in all sectors and innovation that can substantially increase the employment potential of the country, he said.
Also speaking on the occasion, President, FICCI, Sidharth Birla said that Millennium Alliance (MA) leverages Indian creativity, expertise, and resources to identify and scale innovative solutions being developed and tested in India to address development challenges that will benefit base of the pyramid populations across India and the world. The MA was conceptualized realizing that there is an urgent need to look beyond the conventional way of doing things and adopt innovative approaches and solutions to meet the demands at the bottom of the pyramid. The focus of such innovations should be on access, affordability, sustainability as well as scalability.
Others who spoke at the event include Former Secretary, Technology Development Board and Adviser and Member Secretary national Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Harkesh Kumar Mittal; United States Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, John A. Beed; Minister Development and Head of DFID India, Marshall Eliott; Director, ICCo India, Alay Barah; Chief Operating Officer, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, Chinmay Sengupta; and Chief Executive Officer, Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Health (WISH), Soumitro Ghosh. (KNN/ES)
The Millennium Alliance Awards Ceremony was organised here by FICCI in association with Technology Development Board (Department of Science and Technology, Government of India), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID) of UK, ICCO Cooperation, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth and Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Health (WISH), according to an official release.
The innovations were selected through a rigorous selection and evaluation process of over 1400 proposals received as a result of pan-India outreach supported through 40 roadshows in tier I, II and III cities.
The winning innovators will receive seed funding and other support to test and demonstrate their projects which were selected based on their potential to improve the quality of life for low-income populations in India, South Asia and Africa. The awardees are implementing their initiatives across India and beyond, including in Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Haryana, and in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia.
The Millennium Alliance is an inclusive and diverse platform to leverage Indian creativity, expertise and resources to identify, support, and scale innovative solutions being developed and tested in India to address development challenges that will benefit low-income populations across India and the world.
A social innovation expo was also featured during the awards ceremony.
Delivering his keynote address at the ceremony, Gadkari said that Millennium Alliance provides the right platform for encouraging innovators and scaling up their innovations.
Considering that India is a land of innovators and that most innovations go unnoticed, he urged the Millennium alliance partners and industry to identify innovators from rural India as well and provide them the necessary resources. A case in point, he said was Ahmedabad where there were almost 20,000 innovations waiting for recognition at the national and global level.
He also spoke about the government’s initiative of electronic toll collection (ETC) which will be implemented across the 350 toll booths that exist in India at present. ETC is bound to reduce traffic jams on toll plazas, save fuel and reduce pollution.
He urged FICCI to create a bank of innovations and ideas to eradicate poverty and take India to the path of economic growth. It was important to invest in all sectors and innovation that can substantially increase the employment potential of the country, he said.
Also speaking on the occasion, President, FICCI, Sidharth Birla said that Millennium Alliance (MA) leverages Indian creativity, expertise, and resources to identify and scale innovative solutions being developed and tested in India to address development challenges that will benefit base of the pyramid populations across India and the world. The MA was conceptualized realizing that there is an urgent need to look beyond the conventional way of doing things and adopt innovative approaches and solutions to meet the demands at the bottom of the pyramid. The focus of such innovations should be on access, affordability, sustainability as well as scalability.
Others who spoke at the event include Former Secretary, Technology Development Board and Adviser and Member Secretary national Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Harkesh Kumar Mittal; United States Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, John A. Beed; Minister Development and Head of DFID India, Marshall Eliott; Director, ICCo India, Alay Barah; Chief Operating Officer, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, Chinmay Sengupta; and Chief Executive Officer, Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Health (WISH), Soumitro Ghosh. (KNN/ES)
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