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The/Nudge Foundation, and Ashirvad Pipes, in partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India announced a prize for start-ups and innovators working on solutions to provide clean drinking water to the underprivileged and rural households. The initiative aims to support solutions that address population-scale water challenges.
With a total prize purse of ₹2.5 crore (₹75 lakh grand prize for the winning solution and runner up and milestone grants for finalists), the program will run for 18 months and will support entrepreneurs in developing, testing, and scaling solutions through a network of investors, mentors, technology and knowledge partners, and policy circle advisors.
Jal Jeevan Mission
The challenge will give impetus to the government’s Jal Jeevan Mission to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections in rural India by 2024.
The/Nudge Foundation and Ashirvad Pipes believe in the grassroot innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial mindset of Indians. The prize, therefore, is expected to not only supplement the Jal Jeevan Mission through out-of-the-box and scalable ideas but also drive a larger awareness of the issue.
The prize seeks solutions pertaining to source water purification, smart distribution and storage provisions ensuring sustained clean drinking water availability and accessibility, and recycling solutions like water source recharge, desalination, wastewater treatment to increase availability of drinking water in regions with water scarcity.
Participants will be supported by an eminent advisers, partners and experts such as Prof Asit K Biswas, Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow, Vedika Bhandarkar COO, Water.org and VK Madhavan CEO, WaterAid India among others. Investor partners include social impact venture funders such as Social Alpha, Bharat Innovation Fund, Aavishkaar, Caspian, Lightrock and Upaya Social Ventures.
Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India said “Through the The/Nudge Prize | Ashirvad Water Challenge, we are witnessing the collaborative and catalytic role government, academia, industry and innovators can play in finding scalable solutions for water security, along with ensuring sustained drinking water availability, reducing barriers to access (social and geographic), and devising recycling solutions, thereby improving health and hygiene in communities.”
The evaluation criteria for the solutions include scalability with a sustainable unit economics of the business model, significant increase in access to clean drinking water and social & environmental impact.
Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Ashirvad Pipes “Access to clean drinking water should be treated as a fundamental right. Improved access to clean drinking water can be empowering with many positive spin offs such as improved quality of life, reduced health risks and increased income among those communities which currently lack easy access to it.”
Sudha Srinivasan, CEO, The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation, said, “Water is a key driver of public health and livelihoods. Access to clean water has a direct impact on the health, economic and social welfare of our country. The/Nudge aims to draw talent, capital and public attention to underserved issues like Water Sustainability.”
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