About NIF

The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India, established in March 2000 with the support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, serves as India's national initiative to strengthen grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. Its core mission is to help India evolve into a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding the policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators.

NIF actively scouts, supports, and spawns grassroots technological innovations developed by individuals and local communities across any technological field, facilitating human survival without reliance on the formal sector. It ensures that grassroots innovators and traditional knowledge holders receive due recognition, respect, and reward for their work, and strives to widely diffuse these innovations through commercial and/or non-commercial channels, thereby generating incentives for them and others involved in the value chain.

NIF has compiled an extensive database of over 3,75,000 technological ideas, innovations, and traditional knowledge practices (though not all unique or distinct) from more than 730 districts and has recognized 1145 grassroots innovators and school students at the national level through its various award functions. Furthermore, in collaboration with R&D and academic institutions, NIF has facilitated the validation and/or value addition of several hundred grassroots technologies. NIF has also established an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) for product development of engineering related innovations and a Herbal Analytical Laboratory for initial validation of claims on herbal technologies. NIF has diligently pursued intellectual property protection in the name of innovators, farmers and knowledge holders, filing over 1,478 patent applications (including eight applications in the USA and twenty-eight Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications), with 725 patents granted in India and 5 in the USA, alongside 24 Design registrations and 11 trademark applications. Additionally, NIF has filed applications for 95 plant varieties developed by farmers at the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights Authority, with 46 being successfully registered. The Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) at NIF, supported by SIDBI, provided risk capital to 238 innovation-based enterprise projects. NIF has achieved commercialization of grassroots innovations across six continents and materialized 120 cases of technology licensing and the dissemination of over three-dozen innovations through social channels. 28 grassroots innovation based enterprises are also recognized as Start-Ups by DPIIT.

NIF also implements the INSPIRE - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) scheme of the DST. The scheme aims to help build the critical future human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the science and technology practices, and boost the R&D activities by engaging students from all government and private schools throughout the country, and enabling them to create original technological ideas/innovations.

Since the year 2015, 13 grassroots innovators, supported by NIF, have received the prestigious Padma Shri award. In addition to its efforts in fulfilling its mandate, NIF has also been constructing a positive discourse and narrative around strengthening the indigenous and inclusive innovation ecosystem in the country. The Rashtrapati Bhavan's Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Innovation Scholar-in-Residence program, Grassroots Innovation campaign, Challenge COVID-19 competition, etc., are noticeable examples in this regard. The NIF has proven the capacity of Indian innovators to match global standards in creative problem-solving and generating sustainable alternatives using local resources frugally. The Grassroots to Global (g2G) model promoted by NIF is transforming how the world views grassroots creativity and innovation.