THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is organising a five-day national summit in association with Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod with the aim of strengthening the country’s rural economies by accelerating their growth rates.
The February 27-March 2 ‘Rural India Business Conclave’ is being held amid the country’s target to become a five-trillion-dollar economy by 2024 even as the rural areas remain as repositories of untapped economic growth that offer a huge potential.
The event will strive to make agriculture more technology-driven, make basic facilities stronger in rural areas and improve the standard of living of their people. These three strategies, which have to be grounded for an understanding of the external environment that embeds the rural region, will form the core of the targets of the conclave at ICAR-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod.
“Even as innovations give an economy the driving force to surge, many of them emerging from the rural front have not seen the limelight. They are yet to get the nurture,” says Dr Saji Gopinath, CEO of KSUM, which is a 2006-founded nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.
As rural innovators often lack enough experience or exposure to translate their innovations into viable commercial propositions, the upcoming event aims to reinforce the role of technology and business incubators such as the KSUM and ICAR-CPCRI Agri Business Incubation Centre in the creation of a sturdy business ecosystem that addresses the problems of rural India. For this, the event will host an ‘Agri-Horti Fair and SITI Expo’ featuring 100 stalls. SITI stands for Science Innovation Technology Invention.
Another attraction will be an Agritech Hackathon, which will explore the areas of technology that can aid farming in India. This segment will explore subjects such as total technological reliance to measure the growth of a coconut, robot-assisted grafting; a mobile app that will monitor and regulate drip irrigation for different crops; an e-commerce platform that facilitates farmers to sell their products in the international market; and a facility that coordinates collection and disposal of waste.
The Hackathon will be a 50-hour segment during February 29-March 1, where contestants need to develop prototypes for the above-mentioned needs. The prototypes judged the best will get a prize of Rs 50,000 and a clutch of privileges offered by the KSUM.
The Business Conclave will see the participation of startup entrepreneurs from the country’s villages, innovators of new technology in the field of agriculture, NGOs working in rural agriculture, investors and business networks.
The event will also host a seminar titled ‘Dream Big – Kalpa’ to introduce the technological advancements made in farming by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CPCRI. The speakers will talk on the financial, technological and legal help the two organisations provide to the entrepreneurs in the field.
For more information, contact 9562911181 / 7736495689 or login to https://startupmission.in/rural_business_conclave.
