Bengaluru-based not-for-profit public charitable trust Selco Foundation has tied up with the Manipal-based Bharatiya Vikas Trust to promote research and innovations in rural areas.

Harish Hande, founder of Selco Foundation, told BusinessLine that the foundation would invest around ₹1.5 crore to set up a world-class training centre in Manipal to promote research and innovation in the fields of agriculture and healthcare in rural areas in the next one-and-half years.

Asked about the qualifications for enrolling in the training centre, Hande said the person seeking entry could be a fourth grade dropout or a Ph D. Neither the degree the person holds nor his/her English knowledge is the criteria.

But the person should have the passion and the concern to solve a problem affecting the poor, he said, adding that the solution should be related to sustainable energy and poverty alleviation.

Language no bar

Stating that there is a need to encourage entrepreneurs who speak local languages and innovators from rural areas, he said: “Just because I speak English and do a power-point presentation, I get money. But there is a brilliant innovator who speaks Kannada. Why can’t we give him, especially, what we call the failure money?.”

The English-speaking and power-point presenter gets the failure money, but this person will not get the failure money. This institute has been created for high-risk innovation in this sector, he said.

Mini solution point

The foundation wants to create a mini solution point on 3.5 acres in Manipal where the successful rural innovation models from other parts of the globe will be demonstrated, he said.

On the reason for setting up the centre in Manipal, he said the town has intellectual capital in the form of engineering, medical, and management institutions. “I need the involvement of the professors and students of engineering, medical, and management schools in Manipal,” he said.

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