Gujarat Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network (GIAN)– a grassroots technology incubator based in Ahmedabad, has been adjudged the joint winner of the National Award for Technology Business Incubation for the year 2003. The other joint awardee is the Telecommunications and Computer Networks (TeNet) Group based out of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. The award has been instituted by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India to recognize the good work done by various organizations in the area of techno-entrepreneurship development and business incubation. The award carries a cash prize of Rupees One Lakh along with a trophy and citation. The award would be formally presented on May 11, 2004 during the Technology Day Functions in New Delhi.
GIAN is a part of the Honey Bee Network. The Network was set up by Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad to scout and document innovations taking place at the grassroots levels across the country. The objective of setting-up GIAN was to provide a further recognition to the Honey Bee network and the grassroots innovators by commercializing their innovations into successful enterprises. GIAN is an incubator of grassroots technologies and nurtures the various innovations, by providing the necessary support and assistance, into market ready products. The various innovations are incubated by pooling the technical and managerial expertise from its various network partners like IIM Ahmedabad, the IITs and the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.(along with NID, GIAN has set up a design studio called GRIDS, which caters exclusively to the design requirements of grassroots innovations). GIAN has successfully concluded 12 commercialisation deals with entrepreneurs till date and has provided incubation support to around 50 innovations since its inception. As part of the incubation process, GIAN also files for patents on behalf of the grassroots innovators. GIAN has successfully filed for about 24 patents till date, out of which 6 have been filed in the United States of America.
Most of these grassroots innovations address the demand gap that exists in the rural markets and at the grassroots level in India, which is not being currently met by products and services offered by the formal sectors of the Indian industry. Therefore, commercialisation of these innovations holds tremendous business potential in the current Indian context.