WIN-newsletter-Oct2023-v4n3

Dear All,

At the outset, greetings to all for the festive season. While the Indian economy continues to show good progress, the monsoon has been erratic and deficient in many places, casting a shadow over the rural economy in many parts of the country.

The impact of climate change, which has increased such uncertainties, heightens the need to bring resilience to life and economy, particularly of our rural communities.

Building community resilience is the major focus of WIN and its partners through participatory approach, creating a local team of young men and women, trained on both supply and demand side of water management, at village level. Their water conservation efforts, through improvement in water availability and quality and also more resilient agriculture practices among marginal farmers, have substantially increased capacity among those communities in facing erratic weather and climate change.

Our nutri-garden projects, led by highly energetic women nutri-gardeners, too bring greater resilience to rural families and communities, and bring greater nutrition to the families and communities. With continuous technical knowledge support from experts, usage of innovative startups products like on-field soil testing, and organic practices like composting, is helping them improve their soil for the long term, and in turn, also improve water retention. This local community driven farm to fork linkage can bring far superior and sustainable nutrition security, as compared to top-down programs.

Community relationship with water is, indeed, the theme for the Science in Action series in this issue, showing how community thinking can create more sustainable and equitable solutions for our villages and communities, amnd increase the effectiveness of local governance bodies and government schemes.

As a continuous process to empower our women nutri-preneurs, we carried out our 2nd round of digital business for nutri-preneurs using whatsapp for business free version, with very encouraging results. The report on this is included in this newsletter.

Do let us know your feedback and suggestions by writing to us at info@winfoundations.org.

Paresh Vora

Director - India Operations

Latest Updates

Water and Sanitation

Participatory Groundwater Management :

Various PGWM projects with Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT) in the areas of (i) Mandvi- Kutch, (ii) Khambhaliya, Dwarka District, (iii) Abdasa-Kutch, (iv) Little Rann, Surendranagar, (v) Mehsana District continue to progress with greater focus on scaling up, local leadership and sustainability.

ACT in partnership with WIN and JPCT successfully completed the first phase of interventions at Little Rann covering 3 villages, 3 village Water Security plans, recharge of 10 defunct borewells, 1 RRWH in school, with more than 14 community level trainings and is now exploring to take it forward and looking to bring in more sponsors and community stakeholders for sustainability

With a view to provide long term direction, WIN Foundation and ACT have embarked on development a comprehensive impact assessment framework, with following initiatives:

i) We have engaged with an IIT Gandhinagar socio-economics faculty and research team, led by Prof. Deepak Singhania, with strong experience in socio-economic impact studies. The team, after an initial visit to ACT’s project area in Bidada and Abdasa in Kutch, have now planned a year long assessment program.
ii) WIN Foundation engaged 2 interns from CEPT University, one of them for summer and one for full semester, with the task of comprehensive impact assessment of PGWM in Kutch and Khambhalia. The 2nd intern, doing her full semester internship with WIN, is also being guided by the IIT Gandhinagar faculty and research team.

In our water conservation project with Samerth, 6 water conservation structures have been completed in ponds and bunds of different villages in Rapar taluka of Kachchh district, and 2 are under construction which will be completed by the next month. The outcomes are encouraging in the initial stages of the monsoon as 58 farmers from the 6 locations have started their agricultural activities on 174 acres of land. They have cultivated Millets, Mung, Sorghum, Guar Fali as their food security. The seeds have started sprouting, but irregular rainfall brings uncertainty in providing water to crops.
For RRWH in urban areas, we engaged one more CEPT intern during summer, and she studied the RRWH situation in Ahmedabad, including site visits to some implementations.

Mother and Child Nutrition - Health

Sustained efforts by our project partners Saath Charitable Trust, Samerth Charitable Trust and microentrepreneurship training expert Nikesh have helped more than 150 women nutri-preneurs to reach advanced mode and are introducing their products in the communities as well as the market. They are also, in parallel, building channels to add or involve more adolescent girls in our nutrition projects in the areas of Vasna, Danilimda, Behrampura, Fatehwadi in- Ahmedabad, Jaipur - Rajasthan, Sanand taluka

We have launched a new nutrition project with another reputed health NGO, Chetna, with aim to bring 40 new nutri-preneurs from the slum areas of Vasna. The place for Central Kitchen facility has also been selected. Chetna, part of Nehru Foundation for Development, is one of pioneers in health related community training activities in Ahmedabad, and we look forward to working with them.

Nutri-garden Initiative :
Our nutri-gardeners are skillfully growing nutritious vegetables and plants. Our partners Arid Communities and Technologies, Samerth Charitable Trust are supporting them with seeds, bio-input along with guidance and training, covering the geographical areas of Abdasa, Rapar, Mundra, Bhuj in Kutch district, and Khambhalia in Dwarka district. As a part of training a visit by Mr. Lokendra Balasaria and Mrs. Bhavna Shah, part of Treewalk group, was arranged to interact with women groups, see their nutri-garden growth, and understand from them any difficulties faced, and offer them expert guidance, in Bidada and Abdasa areas in Kachchh. The different women groups interacted, asked questions and excitedly showed their nutri-gardens. We are also introducing use of innovative startup products like on field soil testing, to increase women nutri-gardeners awareness of soil health parameters and enable them to improve the soil in the long term.

Innovation and Microentrepreneurship Support :

We are continuing our efforts to bring in more technology solutions and to build microentrepreneurship model for local community,

Innovative Technologies: WIN Foundation continues to support several startups with its product market validation support program.

The smart farming support app from Soilsens has been introduced. This app enables storing farm level data on soil, water, weather and crop status, to enable farm level advisory for marginal farmers.

WIN Foundation was associated with IIT Kharagpur and the Indian Chamber of Commerce, to organise "ICC Water & Wastewater Innovators and Investors Workshop, held at IIT Kharagpur on September 29th and 30th, 2023, and promises to be an engaging and enlightening event focused on water and wastewater treatment innovations.

This workshop provided a unique platform for innovators, investors, and industry experts to collaborate, exchange ideas, and contribute to advancements in water and wastewater treatment technologies.

MIcro-entrepreneurship :

We appreciate the support and guidance receiving from Prof.Amit arora & team, Nutrition Group, IIT Bombay and Prof.Dutta and team, IIT Gandhinagar to our Nutri-preneurs on nutritional analysis, developing recipes, trials etc

The top 7 micro-entrepreneurs were facilitated in 'WIN Nutri-preneur Award Function' held on 15th September 2023,who have actively attended the 1 month Whatsapp Business' training program and implemented for their business and also to further motivate them to aim for greater achievement and also support other fellow micro-entrepreneurs in their communities.

WIN Foundation organised a data system workshop, in partnership with Arid Communities and Technologies from 3rd to 5th October 2023 in Kachchh. This workshop was themed around preparing 'farmer centric protocols and services' that cater to a farmer's farming needs from pre-sowing to post-harvest period. Invitees included technology innovation startups, agriculture subject experts for their inputs in the workshop, and also included farmers, project staff, Bhujal Jankars from different field locations.

WIN Co-sponsored event `Vishwakarma Award for Engineering Innovation 2023 with Maker Bhavan has reached to stage 3. 12 innovators are selected under water and sanitation who are going to compete in stage 3.The competition has a thematic focus each year and the themes for 2023 are in the area of Water & Sanitation, Clean Technology, and Smart Mobility.

Science in Action Series - 7

WATER AND SOCIETY

WATER AND SOCIETY - CHANGING PERCEPTIONS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE - OF SOCIO ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

An overview by WIN Foundation

Water, as the basis for all life on earth, has always been deeply interwoven with societies from the days of ancient civilizations. Societies evolved ways to harness water for agriculture and other needs, in diverse conditions, ranging from arid deserts, to tropical or temperate forests, to snow covered areas, and including plains, plateaus and mountains. In India, we have been blessed with good rainfall, and strong river systems. Our village societies evolved very complex water conservation systems in different regions, with skilled craftsmen and workers building and maintaining water systems. Most kings too funded water conservation s

ystems, to enable more stable agriculture in their domains, in turn, increasing their own revenue. E.g. Shivaji, as part of his early stage initiative, supported local irrigation works, to enable stable agriculture. This in turn helped him not only earn stable revenue for his fledgling kingdom, but also enabled stocking of grains in his many forts, allowing his sardars to defend against the mughal invasion for long periods. The systems were locally maintained and the society was deeply connected, economically, socially and culturally, with water, whether in terms of rivers, ponds or other sources. The tribals too knew that the forests stored the water for them.

Modern lifestyles and high population has brought enormous pressure on water availability, both in terms of quantity and quality. Large scale

centralized planning, coupled with large dams and canal systems, made our cities, villages and societies dependent on government for water needs and reduced the earlier close relationship between society and water sources and societies' sense of ownership of water sources. Large scale industrial and human pollution further exacerbated the problems, as societies at local levels could no longer control the quality of water. This is further compounded by reduction in crop diversity, erosion of soil health etc..

We have now realized the need to bring back the community participation for water conservation. A community is kept together by not only its physical resource needs, but also cultural and social moorings. So, instead of thinking of water as merely a physical resource which only needs to be distributed fairly, a social and cultural approach can bring back the traditional Indian ethos around water. As our population is much higher now and our water needs too are very different than before, we need to adapt traditional methods with new technologies, products, services and processes, and weave them into our rural life. These can bring back vitality and sustainability to our rural societies and make them a full partner in our nation's progress.

WIN Foundation water related projects are strongly focused on community participation, at multiple levels:

(i) involvement of village governing bodies like panchayat, water committee etc.
(ii) involvement of major groups like farmers, dairy farmers, women
(iii) training and creating local expert cadre of young men and women, with training in water security planning, conservation, water recharge structures, smart farming for small farms, safe drinking water, etc.

Smart farming support includes better soil health management, cropping practices, and post harvest practices. Our innovation support programs bring affordable, innovative and field usable products for water and soil health measurement and management, together integrated cloud based data management system to enable expert advisory at farm level for marginal farmers.

Our Women led nutri-garden projects aim to bring back nutrition on family table through crop diversity, better soil health practices and nutrition knowledge at grassroots.

Our digital business training enables such women and others in rural areas to extend their market reach. This enables a healthier local circular market and also ability to expand market to nearby areas, larger cities across India etc.

In all our programs, community is brought to the centre-stage, to enable it to take leadership and ownership of its destiny. There is further scope to create stronger cultural and social anchors for the community in this work, to bring greater health and happiness and make solutions more sustainable.

Water and Society - Changing perceptions in a changing climate: A socio-economic perspective

Authors : Dr. Soumi Roy Chowdhury , Prof. Deepak Singhania, Ms. Shradhda Jain

The growing population and the global shifts in economic activities have led to nearly six-fold increase in the water demand since 1900. Various estimates show that currently, the global water demand for all uses, is about 4,600 km³per year, which is likely to increase by 20% to 30% in 2050.[1] Especially for agricultural purposes, the increase will be of 60% by 2025. [2] At the wake of this surge in water demand, the sources of water are continuously shrinking leading to an imbalance in the spatial and temporal distribution of water globally, nationally, as well as regionally.

Especially, countries with higher share of population, like India, that is a home to 17% of the world population with only 4% of the world’s fresh water, the average per capita water availability, is low enough to be categorized as water stressed country. NITI Aayog reports that the per-capita water availability will further reduce to 1341m³ by 2025 and 1140m³ by 2050 close to the water scarcity threshold of 1000 m3.[3]

Moreover, the water use patterns of India is startling. In 2014, India had the largest freshwater withdrawals, at over 760 billion m³ per year, of all the countries. This was followed by China at 600 billion m³ and USA at 480 billion m^3. At this rate, if conservation measures are not put in place, an investment of Rs INR 20,00,000 crores might be needed to bridge the expected water supply gap by 2030.[4]

The following tables provide a glimpse of the sector-wise projected water demand in India against the water availability as per government estimates: Here we show two tables with projected water demand and supply in India.

-----

[1] Burek, P. et al. Water Futures and Solution: Fast Track Initiative (Final Report). IIASA Working Paper (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria, 2016)

[2] Alexandratos, N. & Bruinsma, J. World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050: The 2012 Revision. ESA Working paper No. 12-03. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

[3] Aayog, N. I. T. I. (2018). Composite water management index: A tool for water management.

[4] "Investments worth $291 bn needed to plug water demand-supply gap in India: Study", ASSOCHAM India, accessed May 6, 2019, http://assocham.org/newsdetail.php?id=6357.

Integration of local communities in water management dialogues

Given the above-mentioned imbalance between water supply and demand, management of water resources such that it caters to the present and future generations become important. In that aspect, the Government of India has acknowledged the need for water management in a scientific way.

Missions like Jal Shakti Abhiyaan across 256 districts and 1592 water stressed blocks in India campaigned for water conservation interventions – such as rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies/tanks, reuse, bore well recharge structures, watershed development and intensive afforestation.

The success of these efforts lie in their relevance and uptake at the local and individual levels of communities. Also, the sustainability of these effects not only rests with their adoption among the end users but in their conviction about the looming water scarcity and the need to uptake water management practices. In this context, it has become even more important to integrate local communities in dialogues pertaining to water scarcity.

With the diverse geographical spread of India, ideally water management must be case specific. One umbrella-solution

might not fit the requirements of the heterogeneous terrains. Therefore, the importance of focusing into the specific water needs and available resources of a community cannot be ignored. Bottom-up approach through participatory planning needs collaborations with the communities living in these areas. This will in turn instil a sense of ownership among them and will make them accountable for the use and management of these practices.

Ensuring accountability such that users understand the importance of these conservation efforts needs behavioural changes. This is the most fundamental requirement that is likely to hold together all the planning and policy decisions. Mindfulness in groundwater extraction as per the needs, adhering to policy guidelines, ensuring timely maintenance of the conservation structures will ensure sustainability of these initiatives. Therefore, capacity building and spreading of awareness are fundamental to bring about behavioural changes.

Sustainable solutions to water management

Different innovation practices and technologies aiming for sustainable water management solutions have gained prominence as a response to the water scarcity. For instance, technologies like faucet, aerators, flush diverters have been introduced to address the water usage patterns in domestic and industrial purposes. Micro irrigation, crop rotations, plantation of seasonal crops, and bio manures help in the preservation of the soil moisture which ultimately leads to curbs in the water demand.

On the other hand, hard constructions, extinction of water bodies, soil erosions have made it difficult for the infiltration of rainwater into the aquifers. Especially in cases of low rainfall areas, arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, the groundwater is even more depleted. Sustainable solutions like rainwater harvesting in these cases can be helpful in addressing the supply side challenges – they help in diverting the runoff of water towards the aquifer.

Some such supply side interventions can be seen through the flagship programs of the State governments like Sujalam Sufalam Yojana in Gujarat, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan in Maharashtra, and Pani Bachao Pani Kamao in Punjab among others. Similarly, NGOs, academic research institutions and some foreign institutions are pulling together resources and like-minded people to drive participatory irrigation management programmes and decentralized water management initiatives. To give some examples, from the Kutch area in Gujarat, one can follow the works being undertaken by the NGOs like ACT, WOTR, SRIJAN, SANKALPA with support from funding agencies such as WIN, Aziz Premji Foundation and Arghyam.

The farmers of Kutch region are affected by low rainfall and salinity of water due to coastal and low-lying areas. Both factors affect the quality of water due to high salt concentration which makes it difficult for both agricultural use and impacts livelihood. To address this challenge, farmers have created a recharge pit – which is used to recharge the dry borewell. Areas near the dry borewell has been evaluated to divert the flow of rainwater towards it. A pit is constructed and filled with rocks and sand which also helps in the purification of water. This pit is connected to a borewell through a PVC pipe. A recharge well serving the same purpose is also dug into these areas to the depth of the aquifer.

These interventions not only increase the water level but also improve the quality of the water by decreasing the TDS level. Most importantly, rainwater collected in these pits and wells gets stored in the aquifer which in overall keeps recharging the aquifer below. So not just the individual farmer, but farmers within the perimeter of 500 metres gets benefited from such interventions due to increase in water availability in the aquifers. The future of these interventions lies in sustainability where both private needs of the farmers and the societal needs are met.

As one farmer from Khambhaliya, Kutch says that:

“We are benefited by these interventions . Farmers were not interested in agriculture due to drought and quality of water and were looking for labor work. But now with increased water availability, I earn more from my field. The produce has increased. Can you see this bright green color of leaves, it was yellow 15 years ago. This is possible due to artificial recharge well”.

As the looming challenge of water scarcity is already upon us, a holistic sustainable and innovative approach to water management cannot leave behind the involvement of the local communities.

Deepak Singhania and Shradhda Jain are associated with IIT Gandhinagar, while Soumi Roy Chowdhury is associated with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. Views expressed are the author’s own

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-singhania-a055a512/?originalSubdomain=in
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shradhda-jain-433b86129/?originalSubdomain=in
https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumi-roy-chowdhury-869275b3/?originalSubdomain=in

Water- A Relation with society- Perspective, Problems and Solutions and Approach

Author - Dr. Sazina Bhimani, Geohydrologist, Founder and Director of Geo Science Services, Bhuj-Kutch

Water is an integral part of human life linked with basic needs for drinking and livelihood. Water is chemically formed as H2O but it has many social forms when it linked with different communities and different purposes. Earlier, water demand was met only in terms of its availability through local sources. Community used to set up social norms and adopt water utilization as per the quantity and quality of local sources. In the current times, the terms have been changed. Water demand is evaluated as bias and fashion- like public source, private source, source type, quantity, quality and availability. While people are aware about the importance of water, particularly their needs in terms of quantity and quality, but are not sensitized to manage the resource. The mindset is to get adequate and safe drinking water that should be assured and supplied by the relevant authority. On other hand, when water connects with their livelihoods such as agriculture and animal husbandry, people value it more. Richness of water resource directly affect the economic return from their livelihood. However, quantum of drinking and domestic water is less compared to current demand and we are not able to manage it across the regions.

Looking to social aspects, people have various community division based on religion and livelihood. In rural areas, water distribution and ownership varies from rich/higher caste to poor/lower caste categories. The social norms still exist in some parts but the term has been changed as one more layer has been added that is owning rich and potential water resources. Water in association with economy creates a different social division within and among the community. Water also become a political agenda, from local to national level.

Right from beginning, water always been a political and administrative agenda. Water is considered as a competitive atmosphere without looking at potential and need for any specific region. All these factors have degraded the water resources of the region. Kachhchh region is the example that shows water history from the rich Dholavira heritage to the current and advances water sources. Even the water demand norms based water requirement couldn’t be matched with local source that has changed the user’s mindset. This has led a trend from sustainability to dependency, from decentralized to centralized system and from local to external source. Urbanization and industrialization add more pressure on overall water budget.

All these factors show that there is a big gap between requirement and potential of the source. The natural cycle of water has been totally missed out by users and suppliers. Human beings are one of the users of water cycle along with other systems. Water cycle of the region defines its potential and availability, that should be the base for water management. Sound water management can be achieved with scientific and participatory approach.

The participatory approach integrates social, scientific and management aspects that leads towards the water sustainability. Considering participatory approach, a project model can be designed for different types of area and users with following common set of parameters.

Geo-hydrological study to understand the natural potential and scope of development
Water demand and water budgeting
Supply management through integration of surface and groundwater development
Demand management from individual unit to collective unit
Resource monitoring and evaluation
Development of decision making tools
Demonstration and scale up

Further to achieve following efforts need to be done at different level such as social aspects, scientific aspects and management aspects.

Social aspects:
- Community/users sensitization that help to change mindset
- Sensitization of the development and management authorities at all the level
- Utilization of traditional knowledge in resource development plan
- Decision makers knowledge strengthening for monitoring and groundwater recharge techniques
- Community involvement throughout all the social and economic division with equity
Scientific aspects:
- Accounts of surface and groundwater resource
- Problem and potential mapping
- Water budgeting
- Demand and supply management plan
- Creation of evidences of participatory management using technological tools
Management aspects:
- Decision making system set up
- Set up usage norms and guideline
- Resource monitoring
- Mainstreaming and scale up
- Learning, review and upgradation

Rainfall is the main source of water that being received every year. When rainwater touches the earth surface, it gets related with administrative boundaries like village, district, state. From this point, water division starts naturally, socially and administratively. Each region receives different amount of rainfall and have different set of technique to harvest it. In every situation, water budget specific management can lead towards the sustainability excluding all the social, administrative and political division. Water should be evaluated and developed as per the demand and potential supply only.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sazina-bhimani-96b17718/

WIN Foundation - Events and Programs

Digital Business Implementation Program for Women Nutri-preneurs and other Microenterprises

WIN Foundation, together with 3 leading NGOs, conducted training program from 20th June'23 to 20th July 2023 twice a week for 1.5 - 2 hours. totalling to about 15 hours, for 40 microentrepreneur teams, who implemented their e-commerce presence on whatsapp for business at no cost, during the 1 month training program and also started their digital businesses through this. The leading implementers were facilitated in an Award function conducted on 15th September 2023, to further motivate them to aim for greater achievement and also support other fellow micro-entrepreneurs in their communities.

Awards and excellence certificates were given to the top 7 entrepreneurs

Program Partners:

Arid Communities and Technologies
Saath Charitable Trust
Samerth Charitable Trust

For more information, please click here - https://win-f.org/win-nutri-preneur-dig-bus-trg-Sep2023

"I live in a small village where women do not go out and work. But after joining with ACT we came to know about the digital training conducted by WIN and it was very useful for me as online marketing of my products can be done. I am happy that now I get maximum orders directly from my phone itself and people outside my village can also place orders.”

- Bharti Gusai- Priya Handwork

"I come from a very conservative family, I am not able to go out and sell the products, but I am very keen to do business and make healthy snacks. Due to this training I am now able to do business from my home without any objection from family and without stepping out of the house. Saath, Nikesh sir and WIN foundation were very helpful at every step during the training even though I conducted the whole training from my home.”

- Anisha Sumara- Laziz Gruh Udyog

ICC Water & Wastewater Innovators and Investors Workshop

WIN Foundation is happy to associate with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to organise ICC Water & Wastewater Innovators and Investors Workshop, on Sept 29th and 30th, 2023, at IIT Kharagpur. Ion Exchange Ltd and Thermax Limited were the major sponsors of the event.

Water and Wastewater treatment is a critical need in both rural and urban areas, and has drawn substantial attention of government, private sector, institutions and public. Thus, this promises to be an engaging and enlightening event focused on water and wastewater treatment innovations for Industry, Institutions, Innovators, Startups and Investors.

This workshop provided an unique platform for innovators, investors, and industry experts to collaborate, exchange ideas, and contribute to advancements in water and wastewater treatment technologies.

Top 3 Innovators, selected by a distinguished jury, received the WIN - IIT Kharagpur Awards for the top 3 innovators, sponsored by WIN Foundation, with an additional prize sponsored by Ion Exchange Ltd.

Top 3 Award Winners :-

1.Mr. Ashish Daga of Exposome Pvt. ltd. has own first prize in the oral and presentation of an innovative idea Regenerable Molecular Filters for Effluent and Emissions

2.Dr. Vanita Pra sad of REVY Environmental Solutions, won Second Prize in Oral and Poster presentation for Production of Anaerobic Granulated Sludge and Biomass Growth Enhancement Formulations for Waste/ Waste Water Treatment Along with Energy Recovery

(https://www.linkedin.com/posts/revy-environmental-solutions-pvt-ltd_participation-in-water-innovation-workshop-activity-7114549858643959808-Xyvm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android)

3.Joint third prizes-

1) Mr.Biswajit Bera of Tecnoquips Separation Pvt Ltd has won joint third prize in oral and presentation of an innovative idea `Fluoride Removal Technology from Groundwater

(2) Sourish Bhattacharya of Biorenesis has own joint third prize in oral and presentation of an innovative idea `Bioremediation of textile wastewater using microalgae through biorefinery model

WIN & ACT - Data system Field Workshop (Farm Level Practices and Issues)

WIN Foundation organised a data system workshop, in partnership with Arid Communities and Technologies in Kachchh. This

workshop was themed around preparing 'farmer centric protocols and services' that cater to a farmer's farming needs from pre-sowing to post-harvest period. We invited technology innovation startups, agriculture subject experts in the workshop. These alongwith project staff, Bhujal Jankars and WIN and ACT team members, visited multiple locations to meet farmers and women nutri-gardeners, to understand their farming and nutri-garden practices, challenges and how they can be supported to increase their incomes in a sustainable manner, by conserving soil health and water

VISHWAKARMA PRIZE - 2023

A national level event, `Vishwakarma Awards for Engineering Innovation 2023 was launched in May 2023 which is co-organised by WIN Foundation closed registrations on 20 June 23. The theme for 2023 is Water & Sanitation, Clean Technology & Smart Mobility. WIN Foundation is the partner and co-organizer in Water and Sanitation track.Over 110+ applications received from all over the country, 26 teams were selected for the stage 1 one out of which, 12 t

eams under watsan shortlisted for stage 3 and at present the teams are in a process of building prototypes and getting domain experts support and mentorship.

The 10 finalists will showcase their innovative solutions for water and sanitation challenges to a distinguished jury panel at the Grand Finale which will be held on 6th Jan 2024 at IIT Delhi

For more details, please visit: https://www.winfoundations.org/vishwakarma-award-for-engineering-innovation-2023/

Edited by: Shanti Menon, Paresh Vora
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