HP has announced the grant winners of the Education Innovation Fund for India (EIFI), a collaborative project between the HP Sustainability & Social Innovation group and the India Council for Integral Education (ICIE), an initiative of the Sri Aurobindo Society. The US$1 million fund is designed to promote education projects that use innovative learning approaches in Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM), pedagogy, curriculum development and holistic learning to advance education delivery and reach in India.
The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM, A) was awarded the top grant of Rs.1 crore. Their ready-to-scale project titled Educational Innovation Bank (EI Bank) is designed to improve the quality of education in the public school system, based on the work of innovative school teachers.
“We are delighted to receive the EIFI grant. We have been working on the idea for some time now and the award will clearly help us to further scale the project,” said Vijay Sherry Chand, Professor, Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
In addition, 15 winners of the Rs.15 lakh ($1.5 million) major grants and two winners of Rs.10 lakh ($1million) special grants were awarded. Forty smaller grants ranging from Rs.10,000 to Rs.1,40,000 were also being given under the EIFI young learners and young innovators categories.
“Sustainable innovation is fundamental to our business and we recognize the importance of delivering holistic education in a practical, application-oriented manner,” said Neelam Dhawan, Vice-President & General Manager, Enterprise Group and Country Managing Director, HP India.
