Govt agency ties up with Amazon for products by grassroot innovators

New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) Products by grassroots innovators, outstanding traditional knowledge holders, as well as student creativity-based innovative products will be available to millions of customers by virtue of a new partnership between NIFientreC and Amazon India launched on Wednesday.

An MoU was signed between NIF Incubation and Entrepreneurship Council (NIFientreC), a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) hosted by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, and Amazon India for online distribution of such ready to market products.

NIFientreC was established in 2015 with the financial support from the Department for incubation and commercialisation of technological ideas and innovations of innovators, traditional knowledge holders and students across the country.

This MoU between Amazon, and NIFientreC, follows just a couple of days after the declaration of January 16 as the National Start-up Day by the Prime Minister.

The MoU, signed by Executive Director, NIFientreC, Rakesh Maheshwari and Director, Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd (ASSPL), Sumit Sahay, will help strengthening the commercial dissemination of the innovative products from local startups and boost India's startup culture in line with these announcements, a release from the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

Chairperson, NIFientreC, Dr Gulshan Rai said: "With the fast-paced digital transformation that's happening in the country right now, there could not be a better time for grassroots entrepreneurs to consider taking their innovations directly to the consumers all over India."

Vice President, Amazon India, Manish Tiwary said the partnership with the NIFientreC is aimed at bringing the benefits of digitisation and ecommerce to grassroot entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs and taking forward the student innovations from rural areas to sell to millions of Amazon customers in India and across the globe.

"It is a milestone in India's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and grassroots innovators will be brought closer to the consumer than ever before. This is an inclusivity paradigm that the rest of the world may want to replicate," said Director, NIF, Dr Vipin Kumar.

The MoU will accelerate the grassroots innovation delivery to the common people of the country, boosting the local economy and creating livelihoods. It will empower innovators from the deepest pockets of the country to leverage the benefits of inclusive e-commerce.