<ul><li>Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust and <keyword id="5252225" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="villgro-innovation-foundation" source="Orion">Villgro Innovation Foundation</keyword>, are currently leveraging artificial intelligence to address the threats of water scarcity and flooding across the country.</li><li>These non-profit organisations have recently been selected among 13 local sustainability organisations to receive support from the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund.</li></ul>New Delhi, Two Indian organisations, Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust and Villgro Innovation Foundation, are currently leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), <keyword id="294572" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="machine-learning" source="Orion">Machine Learning</keyword> (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) to address the threats of water scarcity and flooding across the country, <keyword id="6355629" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="google" source="Orion">Google</keyword> has said. These non-profit organisations have recently been selected among 13 local sustainability organisations to receive support from the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund to explore new use-cases for AI, ML and IoT models that can help manage water supply and inundation risks across the country. "<keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s population could be susceptible to severe water-related challenges across its vast geographic landscape and many climatic zones, if global temperatures cross the threshold temperature rise of 1.5 degree Celsius, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects could occur within this decade," said Sanjay Gupta, <keyword id="191922" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="country-head" source="Orion">Country Head</keyword> and Vice President, Google India. The tech giant supported the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund, founded by the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), with a $3 million grant by Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, in partnership with Asian Development Bank. This fund enables local organisations working hard to develop solutions for sustainable practices and combating the effects of climate change across APAC, be it heat waves, rising sea levels or loss of biodiversity. Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust is focused on empowering and equipping women across India to build sustainable and gender-inclusive cities, providing training and technical expertise in construction, technology, and urban governance. With the grant, the organisation aims to develop an AI-enabled model for building climate resilience in Amalner, Maharashtra to serve as an archetype for a small urban town in India. "The project will pioneer the mapping of land use and catchment areas to predict their susceptibility to floods and inundation, which will contribute to protecting natural drainage systems," said Gupta. The grant is supporting Villgro Innovation Foundation's partnership with 'CultYvate' to develop a mobile and browser-based application, IoT sensors, satellite data, and AI/ML models that will provide farmers in India with real-time insights and advice for irrigation management. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/what-are-vishing-scams-that-start-with-a-namaste-and-end-with-monetary-losses/articleshow/99762900.cms">What are ‘vishing scams’ that start with a Namaste and end with monetary losses</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/sony-wh-ch720n-headphones-review-featherweight-comfort-and-impressive-sound/articleshow/99911412.cms">Sony WH-CH720N headphones review: Featherweight comfort and impressive sound</a>

How 2 Indian organisations are using AI to fight climate change in India

●Themed ‘Innovation for All’, the event focused on amplifying impact through revolutionary technologies ●Villgro announced total funding to the tune of INR 4 crore through iPitch. Winners included BeAble Health, Kritsnam, Cultyvate, along with several other social impact startups ●30+ pertinent panel discussions around social innovations in agritech, medtech, cleantech &amp; employability were hosted by 100+ industry experts December 07, 2019: Villgro, India's oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator, successfully wrapped up its Unconvention 2019 conference on 7th December 2019. As always, the event was a high-decibel confluence of leading social entrepreneurs, CSR professionals, investors, policymakers, and academia. Aimed at understanding the crucial nature of constant innovation to power the next phase of social entrepreneurship, Uncovention’s 10th edition was indubitably a resounding success. <a name="m_-6531833679794319461_m_6042435902640344815__gjdgxs"></a>Day 1 of Unconvention started with a power-packed mentor meet – a workshop with former, current and potential Villgro mentor who discussed the importance and challenges of mentorship, specifically in the social sector. This was followed by several round-table discussions around the conference theme – Innovation for All: Amplifying impact potential for philanthropic capital. These discussions were aimed at donors looking at diversifying their impact portfolio. The opening address, describing the prolific 20-year journey of Villgro, was then presented by R. Ramaraj (Senior Advisor, Elevar Equity &amp; Board Member, Villgro); NK Chaudhary (Chairman &amp; Managing Director, Jaipur Rugs), then hosted a fireside chat covering the importance of low cost innovation to create large-scale impact. This was followed by a discussion on making innovations accessible to next billion, comprising Sharad Sharma of iSPIRT, Bindu Ananth of Dvara Trust, and others, moderated by PR Ganapathy (Regional Director India, Stanford Seed). The event then gave way to the most sought-after part of Unconvention. The winners of iPitch, Villgro’s investment discovery platform were announced. This year, backed by donors like Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), and iPitch investment partners like Menterra, Upaya Social Ventures, Beyond Capital Fund, the total investments worth 4 crore were offered to early-stage start-ups such as Kritsnam Technologies, Oscillo Machines, Lal10, Flexmotiv and more. Arunabha Ghosh (CEO, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW)) &amp; Paul Basil (CEO, Villgro) then launched the multi-million dollar 'Powering Livelihoods' initiative by Villgro &amp; CEEW. The next set of sessions included the much needed masterclass on “Data Protection Law” by Unconvention’s Legal Compliance Partner GameChanger Law Advisors. Shobini Mukerji (Executive Director, J-PAL), Shama Karkal (CEO, Swasti Health Catalyst), and Aparajita Agrawal (Former Co-founder &amp; Director, Sankalp Forum) covered diverse topics. These included access to capital for social sector start-ups, creating awareness and market access, and innovative financing models. The day wrapped up with a networking session dubbed as ‘Investor Speed Dating’ which entailed one-on-one conversations with industry-leading investors. Day 2 of Unconvention commenced with a closed door session with select medtech entrepreneurs and Dr. <keyword id="172787" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Devi-Shetty">Devi Shetty</keyword> (Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health), followed by his keynote address. He highlighted the key learnings from his 20-year journey with Narayana Health. He was introduced by Dr. Paul Salins (Managing Director and VP, Narayana Health and Mazumdar Shah Cancer Centre). This was followed by another round of investor speed dating and a masterclass on Being Compliance Ready by Unconvention’s Financial Compliance Partner SpiceRoute Business. The day was dedicated to sector-specific sessions, focusing primarily on Education, Energy, Agriculture and Health. Commenting on the state of renewable energy in India, Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, CEEW, said, India alone has more than $50bn worth market for clean energy solutions for rural livelihoods. Powering Livelihoods, a joint initiative between CEEW and Villgro, aims to trigger the transformation of India's rural economy by scaling up the deployment of clean energy-powered livelihood solutions. By marrying CEEW's deep expertise in evidence generation and sectoral engagement with Villgro's years of experience in growing businesses, the initiative provides significant capital, capacity building, and ecosystem support to enterprises to scale up these solutions. Furthermore, there was an enlightening session on Energy and Cleantech addressed by some of the eminent personalities in the industry such as Tanya Kothari of Shell Foundation, Svati Bhogle of Sustaintech India Pvt Ltd. and Col. Manish Ahuja of PREFPL. The topics that were discussed in the session included leveraging energy innovations as a growth catalyst for India’s micro enterprises, entrepreneurship in times of climate change and future of clean mobility. The discussion around the education &amp; employability sector focused on Leveraging the gig economy for impact and Collaborating for tech for good. The speakers included Avishek Gupta of Caspain, Aparna Dua of Asha Impact, Rahil Rangwala of MSDF, Kevin D'souza of <keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</keyword> and Nataraj S. Kuntagod, Accenture, among many others. For the health sector, the chosen topics of discussion were Ayushman Bharat and Digital Health and procurement policies that can revolutionize the sector. The speakers included Varun Jhaveri of Ayushman Bharat, Kiran Anandampillai, National Health Authority, Garima Sahai, <keyword id="170241" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Medtronic">Medtronic</keyword> Labs, among many others. Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health, advised the medtech entrepreneurs to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the hospital with clinicians. It is said often but still not enough - you need to immerse yourself into the clinical workflow. Shaping the future of water footprint in agriculture and innovations in agri-supply chains to solve for agricultural losses were the topics covered in the discussion pertaining to the agriculture domain. The speakers included Reshma Anand Shivakumar of ITC, Rasika of Soulfull, <keyword id="80658" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kumar">Anil Kumar</keyword> of Samunnati Finance, Hemendra Mathur of Bharat Innovation Fund, among 20+ others. As the event comes to its culmination, Paul Basil, Founder and CEO, Villgro, said, “Having successfully wrapped up the 10th edition of Unconvention, we cannot help but reflect upon this gratifying journey. We have come a long way and have empowered innumerable early-stage start-ups with seed funding and best-in-class mentoring, strategy-creating, GTM support, follow-on fundraising support. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has joined us on this journey and all those who are present here today. Thank you for your unwavering support that has allowed us to catalyse multiple generations of social entrepreneurs and create an ecosystem of unbridled growth for all aspiring entrepreneurs. Together, we have – and will continue to – change the world!” (Business Insider India is a digital media partner in the event)

With large-scale investments, insightful discussions and all-round innovation, Villgro wraps up Unconvention 2019

<ul><li><keyword id="1096883" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Villgro">Villgro</keyword>’s annual conference will witness the culmination of iPitch – Villgro’s annual deal discovery platform, with investments of over INR 4 Crores being announced</li><li>Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro to launch ‘Powering Livelihoods’, a multi-million dollar programme to support large-scale commercial deployment of clean energy-based livelihood solutions </li><li>‘Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India’ to be released at the event </li></ul><keyword id="153607" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-entrepreneurship">Social entrepreneurship</keyword> is the need of the hour in India, where innovation needs to reach out to the depths of the country. Villgro, India's oldest and one of the world’s largest social enterprise incubators, enables these entrepreneurs and is back with its annual Unconvention conference. Slated to be held at Taj Yeshwantpur, Bangalore on 6th-7th December 2019, the event will witness the confluence of over 700 delegates comprising <keyword id="484405" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-entrepreneurs">social entrepreneurs</keyword>, CSR professionals, impact investors, policymakers, and academia, to discuss the present and future of social entrepreneurship in India and globally. Themed ‘Innovation for All’, this year’s event will highlight the power of low cost innovations and making them accessible to the next billion. The two day conference’s second day is focused on parallel sector tracks of Education &amp; Employability, Agribusiness, Healthcare, and Energy &amp; Cleantech and deep dive into innovations in technology, partnerships, financing and policy for start-ups across agribusiness, health, education and energy domains. It will provide the backdrop for the launch of the joint initiative of Villgro and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) – ‘Powering Livelihoods’. The multi-million dollar programme will focus on bridging the commercial valley of death by providing financial, capacity-building, and sectoral growth support to enterprises deploying clean energy-based livelihood solutions. . The unique, paradigm-shifting program will be launched by Arunabha Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, Council on Energy, Environment and Water. Numerous innovative and interactive sessions including Investor Speed Dating, Mentoring Forum, Innovation Hallway, and masterclasses on Being Compliance Ready by SpiceRoute Business &amp; Data Protection Law by Gamechanger Law Advisors will make Unconvention a hard-to-miss opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to connect, network and grow. The conference will also mark the culmination of Villgro’s iPitch – a unique investment discovery platform that identifies and invests in for-profit social enterprises across sectors of medtech, edtech, employability, cleantech, and agritech. Upto 10 investments, to be announced at the event, will receive a total of over INR 4 crores in investment along with capacity-building support. Speaking on the event, Srinivas Ramanujam, COO, Villgro Innovations Foundation, said, “Villgro has been championing social innovations for 20 years now, and the theme of this year’s conference, therefore, came from our approach and will focuses on insightful conversations about the need for holistic innovation – technological, financial, value chain and policy – to help promising start-ups across sectors thrive in the competitive Indian and subsequent global markets.” Unconvention will also feature insightful keynote sessions by Dr. Devi Shetty, (Founder - Narayana Health), NK Chaudhary (Chairman &amp; MD, Jaipur Rugs), Bindu Ananth (Chairperson, Dvara Trust), Shobhini Mukerji (Executive Director, J-PAL), Varun Jhaveri (Officer on Special Duty to CEO, Ayushman Bharat - PMJAY, Government of India), Sridhar Venkat (CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation), Sharad Sharma (Co-Founder, iSPIRT), Reshma Anand (CEO, Hindustan Unilever Foundation) and Joe Madith (Chairman &amp; Founder, Gram Vikas), among 80+ other key names. It will also witness a book launch - Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India – by Ajit Kanitkar and C. Shambu Prasad. The event will present a unique opportunity for new and established entrepreneurs to catalyse the ecosystem through exhibiting and networking with potential partners, investors, mentors or even customers. Note: Business Insider India is the media partner for the event

This conference wants to farm the future for India’s social entrepreneurs

New Delhi, Dec 23 () Reliance Jio on Monday announced '2020 Happy New Year offer' as part of which it will offer smartphone customers one year of "unlimited services" for Rs 2,020.
 Reliance Jio's limited period offer will be available from December 24 to first week of January, sources said, adding that the offer is for smartphone as well as JioPhone users.
 In case of smartphone customers, the offer packs in 1.5 GB data per day, and unlimited voice calls within the Jio network. For calls to other networks, a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) of 12,000 minutes will be applicable. Subscription to Jio apps will be complimentary.
 Sources said Jiophone users will get a new JioPhone alongwith 12 months of unlimited services for Rs 2,020. Jio will offer 0.5 GB data per day for such users.
**** 
* CEEW ties up with VIF for clean energy solutions
 The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has joined hands with Villgro Innovation Foundation (VIF) for clean energy solutions.
 While CEEW is an independent policy research institution, VIF is a social enterprise incubator.
 "The 'Powering Livelihoods' initiative aims to provide dedicated capital, technical and sectoral growth support to at least five enterprises which are deploying innovative, clean energy-powered livelihood appliances, and shall enable them to undertake large-scale commercial operations over a period of next three years," CEEW said in a statement. MBI ABI RVK

You Searched For "villgro innovation foundation" and got 4 results

How 2 Indian organisations are using AI to fight climate change in India

IANS

With large-scale investments, insightful discussions and all-round innovation, Villgro wraps up Unconvention 2019

BI India Bureau

This conference wants to farm the future for India’s social entrepreneurs

BI India Bureau

Jio unveils '2020 Happy New year offer'

PTI