Bid to boost inquisitive minds at village level

Hyderabad: Continuing its efforts to encourage innovation at the gross root level, Telangana government through its Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) is launching Village Innovation Challenge, a programme that aims to promote innovation at the village level. As part of this, boot camps will be organised and these will culminate in a 24-hour Hackathon on February 1. TSIC will partner with industry body Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA).

Speaking on the occasion, TSIC Chief Innovation Officer Phanindra Sama said the new programme is in line with the objectives of the State's new Innovation Policy that is in the offing. He said Telangana is keen on nurturing innovation at the grassroots level and the Village Innovation Challenge is the first of its kind. TSIC partnered with TITA as the latter has experience in hosting similar events.

TITA Global President Sandeep Kumar Makthala said the Village Innovation Challenge will be held in Atmakur Mandal under Makthal constituency of Wanaparthy district. As part of this, 14 villages will be covered and four youth from each village be selected for the challenge.

"The effort is to encourage innovations that are relevant for local problems. We are looking up to the local youth to come up with solutions. As part of these, we will conduct field level studies to identify the problems. We will look to give a technology support for it," said Makthala.

TITA has been conducting several programmes that aim at increasing the employability of local youth, allow wider use of ICT to address societal problems. Atmakur mandal, where the Village Innovation Challenge, will be implemented, has been chosen because of presence of the industry body's network there. TITA had earlier conducted a Digithon in this mandal. Currently, it is conducting a pilot program to introducing coding as a subject at school level. TITA has already trained the trainers and the later are implementing the module at select schools, said Makthala.

The member selection will be coordinated by TSIC representative Pranay and TITA President Makthala. Village sarpanches will be the nodal point for this programme. The selected members will tour the respective villages and look to understand the problem areas and evolve suitable solutions. The winners of the Village Innovation Challenge will be announced on Feb 2, when the 24-hour Hackathon ends.