Seeking out & shaping bold new sectors with visionary initiatives

Indian agriculture represents a vast landscape ripe for innovation, with the potential to profoundly influence the health and economic prosperity of billions while also positively impacting the environment at scale. With this in mind, in 2018, MIF launched its first sector-specific initiative, #Innovate2Cultivate, focussing on cross-learning, and pilot opportunities to scale innovations for three stakeholder categories: farmers, agri-innovators, and leading corporations in agri-business.

Leveraging Marico’s seasoned leadership in the coconut products industry, the #Innovate2Cultivate initiative focussed on innovations to boost productivity and double incomes for coconut farmers. MIF scouted 500+ agripreneurs across India, of which 37 were shortlisted to be part of the program. Six breakthrough innovations were finally identified, and innovators received field immersion experiences, expert knowledge from agronomists, access to farmers for piloting their innovations, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities with large corporates.

In March 2020, MIF, ATE Chandra Foundation, and Harsh Mariwala, in his personal capacity, joined forces to launch #Innovate2BeatCovid, a first-of-its-kind nationwide hunt for cost-effective and ready-to-deploy innovations that could aid India’s Covid-19 response. In particular, this challenge targeted the critical shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), ventilators, and respiratory solutions, placing immense strain on the country’s healthcare system amidst the pandemic.

#Innovate2BeatCovid received over 1,500 applications, out of which four stood out as leaders with their pioneering innovations:

• Shreeyash Electro Medicals developed high-quality ventilators offered to hospitals at approximately 80% lower cost than prevailing prices.
• Saral Design Solutions adapted their patented machine for sanitary pads to produce 3-ply surgical masks. CREA Worldwide provided specialised and comprehensive PPE kits to bolster the protection of frontline healthcare workers.
• Noccarc Robotics introduced turbine-based ICU ventilators with built-in batteries and advanced features.

With grants totalling INR 2.15 crore, the #Innovate2BeatCovid challenge facilitated the distribution of 14.3 lakh masks, 6.7 lakh PPE kits, and 633 ventilators.

MIF dove into the plastic waste management sector in 2023 by launching a first-of-its-kind report titled Innovation in Plastics: The Possibilities & Potential, written in collaboration with The Indian Institute of Science and Praxis Global Alliance.

This report is a unique playbook that analyses India’s plastic waste management ecosystem, offers insights into the potential solutions and promising city-level case studies, analyses funding available for circular economy initiatives in India, and spotlights 15 Indian innovations that can potentially solve issues across the plastics value chain—from collection, sorting, recycling, to upcycling, reuse, and creating viable alternatives to conventional plastics.

Taking its intervention one step further, MIF has been working closely with innovators featured in the report by providing them with market access opportunities and mentorship to scale their impact. Some of them have been inducted into Scale-Up, MIF’s flagship no-equity accelerator program for accelerated growth and in-depth, bespoke support.

Within one year of MIF’s intervention, these plastic waste entrepreneurs have successfully converted deals worth INR 3.5 crore and raised investments over INR 5 crore. They have cumulatively saved over 1,24,360 tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2023-24.