Hyderabad: An employee of AquaSoul, a Hyderabad-based incubation-stage start-up, is busy explaining a small robot boat system that consists of two devices.

While the first device gauges the temperature and quality of water and sends information to the Cloud, the other roams around an aqua farm to evenly distribute the feed.

“It eases the hassle and helps the aqua farm owners save financial resources with reduced human resources and savings in the feed,” he explains.

There is another innovation called Pole Climber that makes the life of toddy-tappers and coconut farmers quite easy. With a Z-shaped clip attached to footwear, the Climber removes dangers involved in climbing a tree, particularly toddy-tappers and coconut farmers.

These are a few among a host of innovations that bring cheer to farmers. “These innovations have the potential to reduce hassle and improve productivity of farmers. But these innovations lacked sophistication,” WR Reddy, Director-General, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR) told.

The innovations, targeted at rural economy, were put on display at the two-day Rural Innovators Start-up Conclave’ (RISC2017) at the NIRDPR.

The institute signed an agreement with Autodesk, a global leader in design, engineering and entertainment software, to set up a lab that will nurture start-ups that are developing solutions for rural India.

“These innovations will minimise and help mitigate climate change. We will help them with designing, and other resources from the ecosystem,” said Joachim Jake Layes, Global Director (Entrepreneur Impact) of Autodesk.

The start-up lab at the institute will come up in a month and by the year-end about 15 start-ups will be taken on board, said Priya Balijepalli of Autodesk’s Entrepreneur Impact Programme.

WR Reddy said the RISC will be an annual feature, handholding and mentoring innovators and connecting the start-ups with funding agencies.

Source: The Business Line