SBI Foundation hands out Rs 30 lakh grant in Shark Tank-like pitch fest

Fund given to eight fellows working on projects around health, governance, inclusion, farming

It is a busy Sunday at the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra in Chanakyapuri in New Delhi. The headquarters of the youth-centric non-profit is the venue for State Bank of India Foundation’s Youth for India (YFI) pitch fest – a Shark Tank-like final round that has eight young men and women vying for a grant of Rs 30 lakh.

The shortlisted eight are YFI alumni. The nine-member jury, which includes SBI Foundation MD and CEO Sanjay Prakash, finally picks four winners. Each gets a grant of Rs 6 lakh, and the remaining four are given Rs 1.5 lakh each to take their projects forward.

Among the winners is Nitesh Bhardwaj, 31, a fellow from the 2016-2017 batch who started Aadiwasi Janjagruti — a project to connect with the Adivasi population in Dhadgaon village in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district. “Through the Ulgulan Foundation that we founded, we want to use mobile technology to help educate the Adivasi population of government welfare schemes,” says Bhardwaj.

His nine-member team, along with 45 volunteers, records videos in hyperlocal languages to help ease communication between the government and the Adivasi population in the area. “It has slowly developed into a bilateral platform from which we can also present the community’s issues to the elected representatives.”

Bhardwaj adds that with the grant money they plan to expand to newer villages.

Shravani Ladkat, 29, a 2016-17 batch fellow, started the Eco-Circular India Foundation, which encompasses activities in health, livelihood, education, environment and sustainability.

Ladkat uses patented technology for hot and cold storage facilities of grains, fruits and vegetables. “Many farmers don’t have the requisite resources for storing their produce, which leads to a lot of trouble for them,” she says. “The technology has proven to be a success, with grains remaining pest-free for the four months they were in hot storage.”

With the grant money, Ladkta plans to run field trials of her storage technology in Gujarat, and handhold farmers through the process of drying produce to help keep it fresh for a long time.

The other winners include Rangan Ghosh, a 2018-19 fellow whose organisation, Aizheimers, is currently in the testing phase of a prototype for artificial intelligence (AI) platforms for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

Siddarth Daga, another fellow from the 2016-17 batch, started NeoMotion, which designs and manufactures transformative products for persons with disabilities (PWDs). A mechanical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Daga wants to eradicate the dependency PWDs feel.

NeoMotion’s customised wheelchair (NeoFly) and the scooter attachments to the wheelchair (NeoBolt) have been adopted by companies like Zomato to help provide employment opportunities to PWDs.

The 13-month fellowship programme provides a framework for educated urban youth to join hands with YFI’s 13 partner NGOs to work for the rural sector in areas such as health, livelihood, food security, environment, education, water, technology, women’s empowerment, self-governance, social entrepreneurship, traditional craft and alternative energy.

The ongoing fellowship had 76 fellows, of which 70 are currently on ground working with partner NGOs.

“The fellowship is a good way of bringing the urban youth to terms with the rural reality of the country,” says SBI Foundation’s Sanjay Prakash. “The highest percentage of fellows we see are engineers. By the end of it, as many as 70 per cent of the fellows have remained in the development sector.”