Nasscom offers Rs 10-lakh grant for social innovations

Nasscom Foundation of the Indian IT industry apex body on Wednesday announced a Rs 10-lakh grant each for mentoring technology-based social innovations in five thematic areas.

"The Nasscom Social Innovation Forum (NSIF) will award grants of Rs 10 lakh each to winners of innovations in five areas of financial inclusion, healthcare, environment, education and accessibility," the Foundation said in a statement here.

City-based software services firm Mphasis is the donor partner in the 10th edition of the programme.

The forum has invited applications from non-government organisations (NGOs) and social enterprises across the country with innovative projects that use technology for solving key development issues. The last date is October 31.

The NSIF is the country's largest platform to foster innovative use of technology to create sustained social impact.

"The projects will also be provided a 12-month support to scale mentoring by experts in and access to the Foundation's network of tech for good leaders in the country," said the statement.

The decade-old programme identifies, honours and supports innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) based projects, products and solutions that have the potential to address critical gaps in key developmental areas and contribute to inclusive growth.

"With engagement from 2,000 innovators across sectors/verticals, from 25 states, the Forum has become a strong ecosystem encouraging tech-aided development in the country," said Foundation Chief Executive Officer Shirkant Sinha on the occasion.

--IANS

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