US Awasthi launches Rural Innovation Scholarship

US Awasthi, MD IFFCO is the man on the mission. In the past 24 years, he has expanded IFFCO into a conglomerate empowering more than thirty-five thousand cooperative societies. Now he has embarked on another audacious dream of helping 4 crore farmers embrace digital as a way of life by 2018.

IFFCO's customer base is largely in the rural India. Individuals come together to form a society which in turn becomes the member of IFFCO. Thus IFFCO, in effect is owned by the farmer. While a lot of emphasis on digital has been put by the government and various schemes have been launched to this effect, the sheer magnitude of work that needs to be done need people like US Awasthi also pitch in. In the past few months, IFFCO has launched digital initiatives at an astonishing pace. IFFCO has launched an e-commerce portal enabling farmers to buy agri produce, a classifieds portal where farmers can buy and sell their agri produce, a multilingual discussion forum to share knowledge and best practices, IFFCO Yuva a job portal for the rural youth etc.

Today US Awasthi launched the IFFCO Rural Innovation Scholarship (IRIS), aimed at recognizing the innovative ideas that exist among the rural youth. Speaking on the occasion, US Awasthi said, "we do not have the shortage of ideas in our country, I feel the need is to recognize them and give them wings. This scholarship is a small step in helping the rural youth pursue their ideas and innovation and take them to the conclusion."

Anyone having technology led ideas on agriculture, healthcare for women and children, education, elderly care, infrastructure, and hygiene can apply for the scholarship. Your idea should be technology led and should have the potential to scale to at least a million user. Scholarship can be applied through http://iffcobazar.in/frontend/home/scholarship