Rural Innovation fund

 
About Rural Innovation Fund (RIF)
RIF is a fund created for Mission 2007 by Microsoft and telecentre.org:
Helping communities with limited access to technology to realize their potential
Promoting local IT based social entrepreneurial ventures
Fostering ICT based entrepreneurship in rural areas among the youth

Encouraging organizational, individual and local software entrepreneurial endeavors

towards developing cost effective, practical and innovative applications and solutions

that benefit communities
Collaborating & supporing organizations specializing in service development with services to offer,

that lack distribution channels to reach rural or poor communities
Telecentre.org is a collaborative initiative of Microsoft, Canada's International Development

Research Centre, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
We invite applications, from those working towards developing innovative

applications/ solutions/ content/ services in any of the following areas:
Enhancing Livelihood & Agriculture Practice Rural Health & Telemedicine
Education & Literacy E-commerce
Local Content Applications & Village Level Administration Tools
Disaster Preparedness & Management
And individuals/ organizations who belong to one of the following categories:
Grassroots & Rural Technology Social Enterprises Non-Governmental Organizations
Mission 2007 Partners Academic Institutions
Independent Software Vendors (ISV)
 
Funding
The Fund only supports project costs, and NOT recruitment, core organizational costs and

recurrent needs.
 
Application
Applicants must submit project proposals valued at not more than INR 6 lakhs, that highlights the

various measurable milestones and fund requests mapped to the same. Also funding period &

commitments must not exceed 6 months in total.
 
Process to Apply
A five page (A4) “Proposal” very clearly stating the credentials, background, concept note, objective,

output, benefit to rural communities & kiosk network, technology architecture and measurable time

bound result oriented success metrics, accompanied with budgets must be submitted through

email at : rif@mission2007.in only. For further enquiries please contact:
 
Rural Innovation Fund
Mission 2007 Secretariat
C/o M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

IIIrd Cross Road, Institutional Area, Taramani, Chennai 600113, INDIA

Telephone: 91 (44) 22541229, 2254 1698, Fax: 91 (44) 22541319

For Fund Details, IP Related Info & Others Terms & Conditions

please visit: http://www.mission2007.in/rif
 
Technology
Applicants are free to choose between the Microsoft developer platform, Mobile developer platform

and any other developer platforms. Technology must be used within the interoperability guidelines.
 
 
 
With Microsoft Empower Program, you will gain access to essential development tools at a fraction of

their typical cost. For an annual subscription, you will receive of full range of development resources,

msdn subscriptions, software licenses and technical support.

 
To jump start your software development business right away, visit:

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40011351

To sign up as Microsoft Partner mail at isvbe@microsoft.com or

Call toll free at 1 800 102 1100 (Airtel) or 1 800 111 100 (MTNL/BSNL)