Grand Challenge for people of Karnataka

In a move to ensure better nutrition to people of Karnataka, the state government on Wednesday invited innovative ideas from start- ups to tackle malnutrition.

The Karnataka IT- BT, start up cell, jointly with IKP Knowledge Park, launched the Fourth Call for proposals under the grand challenges- Karnataka Intiative. Interested can send their applications to www.impact-karnataka.org on or before May 31.

The Grand Challenge- Karnataka is an initiative of the Start- Up Policy, which looks for new technologies or innovations that can solve long standing problems of Karnataka in priority areas like urban development, agriculture, health, education and nutrition.

The programme aims to channelise innovations for social impact and support growth of start- ups, said IT- BT minister Priyank Kharge on Wednesday.
 
Later in the day Kharge and chief minister Siddaramaiah also awarded cheques to selcted candidates under the Grand Challenges- Karnataka Call 1 and Call 2 categories.

Under Call- 1, which was to build a technology enabled system for solving the issues of monitoring sewage discharge in urban areas the selected candidates are Lab4life Bioresearch private Limited, Phoenix Robitox private Limited, Greenvironment Innovation and marketing Private Limited.

Agribasket Solutions Private Limited, AgNext technologies Private Limited, university of Agricultural Science, Dharwad and Bengaluru and IISc have been selected under Call- 2 category. This category proposes innovative solutions for a technology enabled system to detect and provide physiological and morphological parametres for early detection and warning of plant diseas and pest infestations in different crops across the state.