NIF ANNUAL REPORT 2008-2009.pdf - National Innovation ...

students, which included maps, posters,charts etc.Shodh Sabhas and scouting initiatives inHaryana: GIAN-N organized fiveshodhsabhas/ Gyan Choupals in four villages(Nilokheri, Rasina, Jheel and Sajuma) ofKaithal District and Jind of Haryana amongthe villagers and farmers in the region. Thepurpose was to create awareness about ourmission, mobilize new innovations in theongoing campaign and to establish linkagesin the region. We have so far received veryfew entries from this otherwise progressivestate.Scouting through students: Six students ofMRMD course of Tripura University visitedthe organization for fifteen days. They spentFirst ten days in office and during the lastfive days scouted two hundred herbalpractices from their respective localities. Inaddition, SRISTI continued to engage withstudents during summer vacation to harnessthe creative energy of youth.Scouting and Documentation Grants: S&Dgrant of Rs. 3,50,374 has been extended forvarious activities to be carried out viz.Scouting and documentation in differentstates and for holding workshop to spreadthe word about the NIF and Honey BeeNetwork activities. NIF also offers Scoutingfellowships to innovators and scouts indifferent parts of the country to scout anddocument innovations, ideas and traditionalknowledge practices.Workshops: To build capacity in scouting anddocumentation, how to take prior informedconsent of knowledge hodlers and innovatorsand why should we disseminate first beforewe scout, Workshops were organized atBankura, and Kolkatta, West Bengal;Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh; Jesdan,Rajkot, Gujarat; East and west Champaran,Bihar; NIIT, Surat, Gujarat; various KrishiVigyan Kendra’s from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi;SRISTI, Ahmedabad, and Dangs, Gujarat;Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, HimachalPradesh, Punjab etc. In addition villagemeetings were organized in Andhara Pradesh,Bihar, Gujarat and Jharkhand.A Meeting for technology audit, socialdiffusion and lateral learning amonginnovators, imitators, and users of bulletsanti was held at Rajkot on 5 th May 2008.Mr. Sen Sharma from CMERI, Durgapur andMr. R K Sinha from CSIR, Delhi attended themeeting and learned from the farmers andartisans about the design developed byCMERI and also other innovators.B. Value Addition, Research ch andDevelopment (VARD)Meetings of the Fifth Research AdvisoryCommittee (RAC) were held to review thepromising technologies/innovations andrecommendations for incubation and/or NIFawards. Another Meeting of the NationalResearch Advisory Committee of formalexperts on mechanical innovations was heldon 19 th October 2008 to evaluate entriesreceived in the Fifth National BiennialCompetition and make recommendations fordifferent level of awards. Over 60technologies comprising 42 innovations and18 innovative ideas from the grassrootsinnovators and students were evaluated bythe committee. The committee was chairedby Prof. Girija Sharan, Professor, IIM-A andother participants included professors fromIITs and scientists from renowned researchinstitutions like CIAE and state agriculturaluniversity. Meeting of the National ResearchAdvisory Committee with experts from theinformal sector for mechanical innovationswas held on 27 th November 2008 to evaluatethe entries presented to the committee offormal experts.National Research Advisory Committee(RAC) meeting for agriculture, herbal humanand veterinary practices was held at IIM-Aon 15 th November 2008. Fifteen eminentscientists, including two Vice Chancellors,were present in the committee to judge theinnovative practices presented by NIF. Dr. P.L. Gautam, DDG (Crop Science), ICAR,chaired the committee. Together the expertsgave their comments on 51 grassrootsNational Innovation Foundation Annual Report t 2008-2009 10