IIT Roorkee Kickstarts 4-Day Webinar on Smart Village under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

A four-day webinar titled ‘Preparation of Model Village/Smart Village Plan’ kick-started today. IIT Roorkee, a Regional Coordinating Institute, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan in association with National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), Guwahati, is organizing it. The webinar aims to disseminate awareness to participants on the planning of Adarsh Grams. Prof. Ashish Pandey, Regional Coordinator, IIT Roorkee informed that the holistic development of villages in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s vision will not only transform them into ideal and smart villages but will also be a step forward in realizing the goal of ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat.’

In the inaugural session, Prof. M. Parida, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkeeinformed that Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan mandates the institution with the development and regional planning of two villages- Beladi and Chharba.  Prof. Uttam Kumar and Prof. Shubhjeet, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee will lead the initiative. He further said IIT Roorkeewould form a team of students to initiate the work in this direction.

The inaugural session was also presided by Joint Magistrate, Roorkee, and a senior IAS officer Ms. Namami Bansal. She highlighted that the absence of basic infrastructure in villages has compelled youth to relocate to cities. The development of villages will not only curb urban migration but also make them self-sufficient and prosperous.  She assured of the support of local administration for the development of Beladi and Chharba villages by IIT Roorkee and Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Prof. R.M. Pant, Director, (NIRDPR), Guwahati, said that India has 6,64,369 villages that are home to 83 crores population. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan by the Government of India is committed to ushering a holistic development of villages. The process of instituting planning framework will start from villages in consultation with the rural population.

Prof. M. K. Srivastava, (NIRDPR), Guwahati, gave a brief overview of the technical sessions to be held as a part of the four-day webinar.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Prof. Ashish Pandey, Regional Coordinator, UBA, IIT Roorkee. Sixty-Three participants comprising coordinators and rural folks from Western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand attended the webinar.

Indigram Labs Foundation Announces Winners of its Smart Village Program - 'Adhunik Gram'

Indigram Labs Foundation, a leading agri-tech focused incubator, has announced the winners of its smart village program - 'Adhunik Gram', an initiative to empower agribusiness in rural India.

The winner was IndusTill FarmeTech Pvt. Ltd. which won a cash prize of Rs 1 Lac. The 1st runner up was Urdhvam Environmental Technologies Pvt. Ltd. which won a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and the 2nd runner up was Impagro farming solutions Pvt. Ltd. which won Rs. 30,000. The program which was launched in September 2019, received over 120 applications of which 14 start-ups were short listed and 11 start-ups presented on demo day.

[caption id="attachment_143696" align="alignleft" width="391"] Dr. Manisha Acharya, CEO, Indigram Labs Foundation[/caption]

Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Manisha Acharya, CEO, Indigram Labs Foundation, said, "Rural India has been getting an insignificant chunk of the pie in the economic plans of the country. Majority of the schemes for rural India are just to help earn a very basic livelihood for the people and not for the upliftment of the rural economy as a whole. Therefore, a balanced approach should be adopted to maintain a balance between rural and urban quality of life. Future course of actions, policies, tools, and instruments should deliver valuable building blocks for 'Smart Villages'. With a mission for "A Better Life in Rural Areas" we have initiated the Smart Village Program-Adhunik Gram."

IndusTill founded by Shrilesh Rajendra Mande is committed to developing an affordable smart agricultural vehicle for small and marginal farmers of India. This multipurpose vehicle has the ability to decrease the labor cost by half which constitutes a major part of input cost and double farmer's income with yields and Crop prices remaining constant.

Urdhvam Environmental Technology's [www.borecharger.com] water-recharge technology provides innovative nature-based solutions to a vexing problem affecting humanity worldwide. It was founded by Vinit Phadnis.

Impagro Farming Solution's Co-founded by Akbar Sher Khan is developing energy-efficient village-level cold chain infrastructure for farmers with a facility to pre-cool and store their crops at the farm-gate before dispatch to market which greatly reduces post harvest loss and improves profitability.

The Adhunik Gram (Smart Village) program was launched with support from NABARD and start-up India with the objective of identifying the problems of rural areas and exploring solutions with the help of science & technology based start-ups. The focus of the program is to contribute to the promotion of an innovation and technology-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem with an objective of rural development through wealth and job-creation. The innovative ideas of these tech-based start-ups will further help in promoting economic development that improves quality of life and attracts human capital to villages.

The program achieved significant outcomes for the selected start-ups who explored, developed & executed innovative solutions to address agricultural & rural development issues in rural India in collaboration with farmers/Cooperatives/Govt./Pvt. Institutions. From customized capacity building program to making them investment ready, identification and access to funding opportunities, market linkages and networking opportunities with relevant industry ecosystem, the Adhunik Gram program equipped the budding start-ups with necessary knowledge and skills.

About Indigram Labs Foundation

Founded in 2015 with its headquarters in New Delhi and promoted by Indian Society of Agriculture Professionals [ISAP], Indigram Labs Foundation is a technology business incubator [TBI] with thrust on Agriculture-Technology & food processing, Clean Energy and Automation, Rural focused Healthcare and Education. Backed by NSTEDB, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, Indigram Labs provides infrastructure, networking, technical, IPR and financial support to its incubates. It has collaborations with leading scientific research organizations, academic institutions, venture capitalists and accelerators in India and abroad. Indigram Labs has so far incubated over 40 start-ups with 28 in the pipeline. The incubatee companies have generated revenues of more than USD 25 million in FY 2019-20 and provided full time employment to more than 900 people. Some of the prominent incubatee companies in its portfolio include Intello Labs, New Leaf Dynamics, Agriwatch, Global Eats, TechnifyBiz, Farm Guide and Tractor Junction among others.

For more information, please visit indigramlabs.org.

~ Newsvoir

Innovative Products, Solutions Unveiled at India's Biggest Govt School Kids Hackathon Focusing on Village, Community Problems

Hackathon for Workable Solutions for problems in Villages and Communities surrounding TSWREIS Govt Schools held on Saturday and continued till late evening. The code fest turned 29 Government Schools under TSWREIS and TTWREIS into Ideas ideas hubs.

The India’s biggest Govt Schools Hackathon organised at 29 locations of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) attacked a participation of 5640 students.

The focus of the Hackathon was Village problems faced by farmers and problem confront communities around TSWREIS schools.

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Siddhu, one of the participants at TSWREIS Itikyal Village , developed Smart Irrigation. He developed a device which ensures better irrigation with less water, least power usage, least water wastage and reduces human effort dramatically.

[video width="848" height="480" mp4="https://www.indianweb2.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Video-Siddhu-8th-class-student-seen-showing-Smart-Irrigation-System-he-designed..mp4"][/video]

Water is a precious commodity. Many farmers are committing suicide due to erratic monsoons. There is a severe shortage of rainfall. So available water resources have to used very effectively.  My invention is a small step towards a great problem. Whenever Sensors places in the soil detect and register dryness, it pumps water automatically. On the reverse side, when detects sufficient moisture in the soil, it stops the supply of water, he explained. My device works based on IoT (Internet of Things), the 8th grader explained.

To solve rural unemployment a gram panchayat level job portal was created. It will ensure labour for farming jobs as well as all year round employment to labour.

[caption id="attachment_141637" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A participant in a Hackathon on Rural problems seen explaining An App. ‘Plantix’ he developed.[/caption]

The young ciders developed an App called “Plantix”, it is about Naa Panta(My Crop). With the help of the App, uneducated farmers too can just by taking the photo of the pest, the app will automatically read the photo, identify pest and prescribe remedial measures pictographically so that peasant can easily understand. It is a self help App. We are leveraging technology for the farmers benefit explained Vignesh and Yaswanth both 8th Class students.

Another boy Urukundu developed “Smart Spectacles” for the benefit of the visually challenged. The blind can go anywhere on their own without any support including the stick. The spectacles comprised a frame is fixed with ultrasonic sensor, controller arduous nano, buzzer and battery alerts person when encountered on object opposite to them. Thus they change their path and move safely, the young boy explained. It costed me just Rs 500/- to make it he shared.

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Vignesh and C. Yashwanth have come out with a solution to stop overflow of water tanks in the rural setups and houses. They developed automatic devices which help avoid such overflows. Even the lights on the street in the farms switch on and off on their own, thus save money on energy for poor farmers.

Manikarthink of 7th standard  developed “8 Army” , a phut hon based rural game which works with Internet. Dinesh, Varaorasad and Bharath developed Rock Paper Scissor; manikarhi, Rakesh and Parushram “Dice” and Prem, Vinod and Sunny “Linear Search”. All these are workable games. They demonstrated at the Hackathon for the information of their fellow contestants.



Kids have mastered coding and programming. Nearly 25% of the participants are proficient in writing 20 to 30 lines of coding. Most of the participants have learned 30 programs, which include: Reverse of Numbers; Palindrome; Fibonacci Series, Multiplication of any Table, Armstrong Numbers; Fractional Numbers etc.

Kids learnt coding as a fourth language along with Telugu, Hindi, English shared their Mission Code trainers Akhil and Arun. Coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites. Your browser, your OS, the apps on your phone, Facebook, and this website – they’re all made with code, they explained.

We taught them analytical, problem identifying and solving skills and others they explained.

The new edition of Mega Hackathon, one of India’s biggest school Hackathon on Village problems and problems in communities surrounding them  involved around 5000(five thousand) students from marginalized backgrounds and 60% of them comprised of girls. It was held simultaneously at 25 locations across Telangana.

The locations include: Chilkoor, Ibrahimpatnam, Shamshabad, Mahendra Hills, Narsing, Hayatnagar, Medchal, Saroornagar, RK Puram, Chevella, Choutuppal, Manakondur, Chppadandi, Karimnagar(Alugunoor), Wardhannapet at Madikonda, Warangal West, Thrimalayapalem, Dhanvaigudem, Palvanch, Kondapur, Adilabad, Itikyala, Siddipet, Bhongir and  Dharmaram.

India has many problems.  Indian Villages have more problems.  But, these problems are also opportunities for the young minds to come out with Workable solutions.  More problems mean more opportunities to come out with solutions.

It was organized under the unique concept named “Mission Code” introduced in TSWREIS. Project Mission Code is an initiative to encourage both boys and girls learn software coding and leverage technology for problem solving.  Thus students learn both learn to leverage technologies to solve day to problems and they will also develop analytical skills.

TSWREIS is found to Cater to Educational Needs of Marginalised Children. It teaches students differently.

The students of the TSWRIES schools are on a MISSION to DEVELOP VILLAGES, inspired and motivated by  their Visionary Secretary Dr R. S. Praveen Kumar IPS and with the help of their knowledge and new computer programming they have learnt – from the MISSION CODE program through which these schools going kids are helping farmers and villages solve their problems.

Students toured surrounding communities and villages close to their respective schools to identify problems.  Some of the problem identified include: Improving the means of livelihood; Increasing the Production and productivity; women education; falling kids into abandoned bore wells among many other.  They worked on these problems and came out with solutions and implemented them.

The Hackathon was all about coming out with Workable Solutions to solve rural problems and problems in Villages and Communities surrounding TSWREIS schools. So that students learn practical and hands-on experience and help communities.

By teaching these boys and girls to code, we’re preparing them to enter the work force as well as preparing them to lead in future” shares Secure Space Pvt Ltd, which one of the program implementation partner of TSWREIS for Mission Code.

And sixty per cent of Coders who participated in the Hackathon were girls, 6th to 9th graders who are in the age group of 11 to 14 years.

It was organized by Secure Space, a city-based Startup engaged in Tech Content Development.  It was organized in association with Sunitha Infovision Ltd, a Hyderabad based 18 year old company in EdTech Space and CST (Centinel Spark Technologies), a company involved in School Technology Training and Implementation.

The overall project has been assigned to these entities by Setwin which a Telangana Government Nodal Agency specializing in training and skill development Amon youth and students.

Society to Train and Educate People's Participation in Development (STEP) is one of the implementing partners. The Hackathon held from morning to evening.   

Hackathons in schools especially in government schools is very rare involving marginalized communities. Programming and computational thinking skills are becoming ever more important in our society and day to a day career path.

TSWREIS which was started with a vision to build an outstanding government educational institution which provides high quality holistic and value based education to the marginalized children on par with the other advantaged children in the world. It has achieved many distinctions and made a real difference to the students from marginalized communities.

Rohit Yadhati and Sreekanth Neelam – Founders of– CST (Centinel Spark Technologies Pvt Ltd) conducted Seminars and trained over 40,000 students.  They also mentored students in IoT—Internet of Things; Mobile App and Games Development in some reputed institutions like Oakridge, Glendale Academy, Army Schools, CGR, DPS, Meridian, Indus, Hitech and many such schools.

All the 5000 students at 29 different locations were given training in Coding for 100 hours spread over 75 days.  Nearly 120 trainers and experts were drawn from the corporate world.

Because of the changing landscape of things, kids now love to code. Kids, particularly, the Government school kids of TSWREIS schools are going beyond their prescribed curriculum. Digital Technologies have become part of their DNA.  They can code in HTML, Java Script and Sensors. At an age of 11 years, these kids are learning to code. They are speaking the such languages, even their parents don’t understand. 

Computer programming which was once seen as a skill reserved for geeks and computer nerds is now is regarded as an essential ability for 21st students

India’s Biggest Rural Technical Festival to be held at RGUKT, Basar on Jan 31st, Feb. 1st & 2nd

National Level India’s Biggest Rural Technical Festival titled “Antahpragnya 2020" to be held at RGUKT (Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT)), the temple city of Basar, 180 km from Hyderabad, the state capital of Telangana from January 31st 2020 to February 2nd 2020. 

Disclosing this in a press note issued, Dr. A. Ashok, IAS, Vice-Chancellor of RGUKT, said it comprises of technical, literary, entrepreneurial, fun, cultural activities. 

RGUKT is the first ICT based University in Telangana for rural meritorious students. The main aim of Antahpragna 2020, says Dr. Ashok, is to spot and encourage rural tech innovators.

The theme of the biggest ever National Rural Technical Festival is to ‘spot and encourage rural tech innovators’, Dr Ashok added. 

Antahpragnya, the Rural Technical Fest is very unique. Some of the best brainy students study in rural areas will participate. We need to nurture these innovative brains by creating an ecosystem. This platform can be used by them to apply technology to simple human tasks and create some of the finest and most eco-friendly products and equipment shared Mr. Swapnil Jangale, Convenor.

A total of 300 plus prototype working models created by 4000 rural ignited minds from the RGUKT varsity and outside are presented as part of the program, while 200 different colourful events will be organized. Nearly 50000 people from nearby places and other colleges are expected to witness the Three Day National Level India’s Biggest Rural Technical Festival added Mr. Haribabu, Co-Convenor. 

Thousands of Students belonging to reputed colleges across the length and breadth of India are taking part in the event.

Some of the events include  Virtual Reality, Hologram, Robo Race, Development of Ideal Village Project; Robo Soccer, Sci-Fest(a National Science Fair), Campus Farming Competition etc and others. 

Under Techies for Karshak, Campus Farming Competition, a novel competition which is unheard of before will be held. This is a competition between the branches, PUC1 and PUC2 in implementing innovative ideas and improving the yield of the crop. One acre of land near the football ground in the campus is levelled, cleaned and made it ready for farming. The land is divided into 9 equal parts each for the branches. The participants were given away Spinach seeds and asked to grow that crop. This is a competition between all branches for the championship THE AGRI CHAMPIONSHIP. The champions are decided and judged by the farmers who come to the event.

Students to spend a day with the farmers in a nearby locality, film their entire day, interview them at the end on their problems and solutions they look for. The winners will be adjudged for the most creative and accurate documentary inform A. Sandeep, R. Jyothsna, MSVN Sai and Keerthana, the coordinators of the event.

Robo Race is an innovative event planned. In this fast-growing world, being faster means everything, whether it is a running race or a race of learning skills. Giving this concept a new twist, RGUKT is organizing Robo Race, wherein the students design the fastest robot and take part in the battle. 'Be the fastest or nothing else'. The faster you run the sooner you are done. Racing is great mania which one must sacrifice everything without reticence, without hesitation.

A smooth race never made a skilful racer and to take care of that we bring you the dirt arena, because, 'a little dirt never hurt'. So come with your robots to the dirt track and race it as you stole it, says Ajay, Pavan Kalyan, Tagore Charith, the Robo Race team. The goal of this event to design a manual or wireless Robot which can complete the track, full of hurdles. Each team will have four participants. 

Robo Soccer to present soccer with an entirely new dimension. The participants will bring out the hidden RONALDO, MESSI in them... participants will have lots of fun and thrill, share B. Sachin Kumar and M. Pavan Kalyan. 

There are many amazing Virtual Reality and Holographic events and many exciting games panned to attract the audience. Hundreds of designs of posters are made by students of RGUKT promoting Design in India, Made in India said Vikranth, Harish, Venkatesh, Anupriya, Tilak of designing team.

Another interesting activity is the development of IDEAL VILLAGE. This project deals with the development of the village as an ideal village. We define an ideal village as a bundle of technical devices which are delivered to its residence effectively and efficiently. “Ideal Village” is that modern energy access acts as a catalyst for development in an environment that in turns support further improvement in energy access. We focus on technology which uses improved resources, for a happy and technical society. We are making an ideal village by taking smart decisions using smart technology. It is completely based on the old tradition of livelihood fused with technology.

Some interesting models ID Verification Using QR Code; Automatic Door Open and Close; Smart Bell; Water Monitoring System; Smart Light and Fan; CC Cameras; Smart BIN; Self Erasing Board System; Face recognition System For Hostel Rooms developed by students are part of the Smart RGUKT will showcase the models. 

The team of ANTAHPRAGNYA in collaboration with SSERD(Society for Space Education, Research and Development) have come up with an intriguing way to reach out to young minds by using a distinct method of learning focused on Space Science. It is aimed at creating awareness about the exciting career in the space but also provides the right platform for identifying such brilliance and to support them to achieve their dreams through hands-on activities. And also facilitate their learning of the most important skills like Innovation, Critical thinking, Leadership and Team Management, Creativity, communication skills through Astro Space Camp. According to the team Vinod, Mallesh, Neeraj, working on this project, students will get exposure on Space Science, get Career Guidance in Aerospace Domain, they can get prepared for Space Revolution and they learn Critical and Analytical thinking.

SCI-FEST, a The National Science Fair will be held for students of Secondary High School and Intermediate Colleges, to refine and showcase their ‘Knowledge of today’s science which becomes Technology of tomorrow’. The participants work around 1. Agricultural Technologies; 2. Water Management; 3. Energy Generating Technologies, 4. Best from waste, 5. Green Energy, 6. Bio-Fertilizers, 7. Road Safety and Fire accidents, 8. Technologies for women protection, 9. Pollution Control Methods, 10. Traffic Management shares P.Akhil and S.Kiranmai.

Q’riocity is another activity aimed at testing the team’s IQ, General Knowledge and Coding at various levels.

Brogrammers is an intradepartmental event. The participants are not only tested on their coding skills but also the flexibility of their bond. Overall Brogrammers is an event of fun and tech stuff put together.

Codoholic is an intradepartmental event. It provides a team to experience what standard coding is all about. Teams battle out for the title of “Best Coders of the Department"

Trinayana the Gala Cultural Nights is aimed at bringing out the artistic, cultural, intellectual and creative skills of students into the limelight. 

Indigram Labs launches “Adhunik Gram, A Smart Village Program” to Empower Agri-Business in India

Indigram Labs Foundation (ILF), a technology-based incubator launches “Smart Village Program” initiative to facilitate the agribusiness in rural area. The applications of the program are now open till the end of October 2019.

Notably, Indigram Labs is one of India’s leading agribusiness incubators based in New Delhi and ILF aims at fostering and nurturing viable business ideas through the process of consulting, mentoring, leveraging technology tie-ups and giving access to various platforms.

“Adhunik Gram” initiative is focused on the upliftment of the rural economy as a whole. The concept of Smart Villages prophesize on e-literacy skills, access to e-health and other basic services, innovative solutions for environmental concerns, circular economy applications to agricultural waste, promotion of local products supported by technology and software, implementing and taking full benefit of smart specialization agri-food projects, tourism, and cultural activities, etc.

Also, a Smart Village provides long-term social, economic, and environmental welfare activity for village community. This provision of different components will enable and empower enhanced participation in local governance processes, promote entrepreneurship and build more resilient communities. Additionally, it will also ensure proper sanitation facility, good education, better infrastructure, clean drinking water, health facilities, environment protection, resource-use efficiency, waste management renewable energy etc.

Indigram Labs Foundation is already supporting start-ups in the sector of agriculture, food, renewable energy & healthcare.  With the launch of SMART village, Indigram focuses on nurturing and promotion of Agri-preneurship as well as the development in the village economy.

Commenting on launching this initiative, Dr. Manisha Acharya, CEO, ILF said” It is anticipated that this initiative will be a stepping stone to connecting the villages and countryside, and stakeholders and policymakers are invited by this organization to get involved and work with us so that together we can deliver on the promise of “A Better Life in Rural Areas”.

ILF has listed a few potential areas, where Smart Villagecreates measurable and significant impact and Startups can identify solution in these key areas:

• Smart Dairy-Remote supervision and monitoring in open fields and barns


• Smart Farming- Satellite data for farm activities


• Smart agriculture- Smart agricultural equipment for crop production


• Smart Weather and Irrigation-Weather forecast water levels in dams


• Smart health care –Smart beds and equipment to monitor the patient/digital healthcare


• Smart Education – Interactive learning through videos


• Smart Energy-  Alternative renewable energy(e.g Solar energy,Biomass energy)


• Smart surveillance system – CC cameras and sensors to detect robbery


• Smart Buildings – security cameras, fire safety, electricity management

Any student founder can apply whether engineer or non-engineer, however, the team must be able to complete personal interview round to get selected.

The following action plan will be adopted for the Smart Village project:

• Call for application to identify and solve the problem of a village (open till end of October 2019)


• Selection of top-10 startups


• Arranging workshops for the selected start-ups


• Final demo day-cash award and providing pilot test facility to the start-ups.

About Indigram Labs Foundation(ILF):

The Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) in setting up of more than 1,800 Agri-based ventures through its various program and is currently promoting 250 FPOs in 18 states. Such extensive experience leads to the genesis of Indigram Labs Foundation as an Incubator supporting grassroots innovation & entrepreneurship development. We are, therefore, in a unique position to undertake this below mentioned project work.

ILF has been supported by the Department of Science and Technology since September 2016, via the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Govt. of India.

Indigram Labs Foundation is a technology based incubator founded in 2015 with a vision to promote creativity and innovation. In agriculture renewable energy and rural healthcare industry. Notably, the Indigram Labs is one of India’s leading agribusiness incubators based at New Delhi. 

ILF aims at fostering and nurturing viable business idea through the process of consulting, mentoring, leveraging technology tie-ups and access to platforms. ILF has been supported by the Department of Science and Technology since September 2016, via the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Govt. of India.

Indigram as a group has 18 years of diversified & extensive on-ground experience & presence through its multiple entities & agencies.