March 28, 2024

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Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society to Inaugurate the 2nd Bihar Innovation Forum in Patna

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Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) or JEEViKA, an independent society of Government of Bihar with support from the Government of India, Government of Bihar and the World Bank, in collaboration with the State Innovation Council, today announced the opening of the 2nd Bihar Innovation Forum. The event will be spread over the course of 2 days and will be held on January 30-31, 2014. The first day will give attendees the opportunity to meet and interact with the 67 finalists from the Bihar Innovation Forum and the 16 finalists from District Innovation Forum, while the second day will witness the 32 winners being felicitated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar. The event will also be attended by eminent dignitaries such as Mr. Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank, Mr. Anil Sinha, Regional Head, IFC and officials from community development institutions such as Ashoka, Villgro, Dasra, DFID, Acumen, Intellecap and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The 2nd Bihar Innovation Forum was launched on April 28th last year and saw over 500 applications from public, private and civil society organizations from across India for innovative rural solutions under 8 livelihood themes – agriculture, livestock, financial services, rural energy, ICT based solutions, skill development and non-farm sector, access to entitlements and access to services.

Shri Nitish Mishra, Rural Development Minister, Government of Bihar said, “I ensure that entire Bihar Government, particularly Rural Ministry will back the social enterprise and rural entrepreneurs by supporting them and working with them. This will certainly transfer the picture of rural Bihar by empowering rural poor socially and economically.

Shri Arvind Kumar Chaudhary, Chief Executive Officer, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) said, “The Bihar Innovation Forum has given social enterprises a great platform to share the benefits of their innovation with the rural poor. It will also act as an interface between these enterprises and developmental agencies such as the World Bank, DFID and others.

Mr. Parmesh Shah, Lead Rural Development Specialist, World Bank said, “We are using the Bihar Innovation Forum to bring together all relevant elements such as innovators, best practices and community institutions, needed to address the problems of the poor in Bihar. We looked at innovations that have made some ground breaking difference for the lower strata of society.”

The winners will get an opportunity to access social capital of 1 million organised rural households to which an investment ofUS$ 120 million has already been made. The investment will increase to US$ 1 billion and is expected to take the number of organized households to 15 million by 2017. Winners will also receive mentorship and support from the BRLPS and its partners for last mile delivery, field level logistics and implementation.

About Bihar Innovation Forum:
Bihar Innovation Forum was previously launched in 2007 and was first of its kind in the country wherein more than 150 innovators were identified through a rigorous process and of which 25 were celebrated and awarded with the cash prize awards and certificates of merit. Out of the winning entries BRLP established partnerships with five innovators – COMFED (for empowering milk producers by organizing the unorganized); PRADAN (for System of Rice Intensification); EDA Rural System Private Limited (for organizing beekeepers for the market); SHAKTI SUDHA (providing technical assistance to farmers to grow “makhana”) and SAKHI (for creating fisherwomen’s’ collectives). A few others were supported by development agencies including DFID and one of the them (SAMMAN) went on to be recognized by the President of United States with Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

About BRLPS:
Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project or JEEViKA (which means livelihood in Sanskrit) is implemented by Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), an independent society of Government of Bihar with support from the Government of India, Government of Bihar and the World Bank. The organization has been appointed as a nodal institution by the Government of Bihar and has been designated as the State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) to rollout the activities of National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)  in the state. The JEEViKA project builds on the experiences and lessons emerging from Bihar’s efforts at poverty reduction. The objective of the project is to improve livelihoods of the rural poor through social and economic mobilization and enable them to access credit, assets and services such as social safety nets from public and private sector agencies, including commercial banks. The project is being implemented across the state of Bihar.

Courtesy: PR Newswire

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