NEDFi wins Rural Innovation Award 2012

GUWAHATI: North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited ( NEDFi) was declared Winner of the NABARD Rural Innovation Award -2012 in the Category of Public/ Co-Operative Sector / Government for its contribution towards promoting handicraft products made from water hyacinth.

Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram presented the award to NEDFi in presence of Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development.

The 3-year Water Hyacinth craft project of NEDFi which is sponsored by North Eastern Council, Shillong has enabled more than 1300 artisans of the region to take-up the craft as a source of sustainable livelihood.

NABARD had constituted the Award for Rural Innovation to commemorate its completion of 30 years for encouraging grassroots innovations towards improving efficiency and productivity through locally available resources. NABARD received more than 1400 entries for the contest.

The final awardees were selected from the 30 shortlisted innovations in five different categories by a panel of expert jury headed by Jairam Ramesh.

B. P. Muktieh, CMD, NEDFi dedicated the award to the artisans and crafts-person of the region whose commitment has enabled the project to reach this level of national recognition.

He further stated that this will encourage the Corporation to undertake further product development and design in water hyacinth craft with quality input from national/international level trainers and covering more artisans of the region.

He acknowledged that the establishment of the craft as an alternative handicraft item of North East was possible with contribution and support received from different organizations like NEC, Shillong, NID, Ahmedabad and UNIDO, New Delhi.