Bihar
Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) or JEEViKA, an independent
society of Government of Bihar with support from the Government of
India, Government of Bihar and the World Bank, in collaboration with the
State Innovation Council, today announced the opening of the 2nd
Bihar Innovation Forum. The event will be spread over the course of 2
days and will be held on January 30-31, 2014. The first day will give
attendees the opportunity to meet and interact with the 67 finalists
from the Bihar Innovation Forum and the 16 finalists from District
Innovation Forum, while the second day will witness the 32 winners being
felicitated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar.
The event will also be attended by eminent dignitaries such as Mr
OnnoRuhl, Country Director, World Bank, Mr Anil Sinha, Regional Head,
IFC and officials from community development institutions such as
Ashoka, Villgro, Dasra, DFID, Acumen, Intellecap and Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation.
The 2ndBihar Innovation Forum was launched on April 28th
last year and saw over 500 applications from public, private and civil
society organizations from across India for innovative rural solutions
under 8 livelihood themes - agriculture, livestock, financial services,
rural energy, ICT based solutions, skill development & non-farm
sector, access to entitlements and access to services.
Nitish Mishra, Rural Development Minister, Government of Bihar said that, “I
ensure that entire Bihar Government, particularly Rural Ministry will
back the social enterprise and rural entrepreneurs by supporting them
and working with them. This will certainly transfer the picture of rural
Bihar by empowering rural poor socially and economically”
Arvind Kumar Chaudhary, Chief Executive Officer, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) said, the “The
Bihar Innovation Forum has given social enterprises a great platform to
share the benefits of their innovation with the rural poor. It will
also act as an interface between these enterprises and developmental
agencies such as the World Bank, DFID and others”.
Parmesh Shah, Lead Rural Development Specialist, World Bank said, “We
are using the Bihar Innovation Forum to bring together all relevant
elements such as innovators, best practices and community institutions,
needed to address the problems of the poor in Bihar. We looked at
innovations that have made some ground breaking difference for the lower
strata of society”.
The
winners will get an opportunity to access social capital of 1 million
organised rural households to which an investment of US$ 120 million has
already been made. The investment will increase to US$ 1 billion and is
expected to take the number of organized households to 15 million by
2017. Winners will also receive mentorship and support from the BRLPS
and its partners for last mile delivery, field level logistics and
implementation.
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