IBM grant for IIT-Kharagpur, Drishtee

BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) and Drishtee Foundation from India will get a grant of nearly US$100,000 each from IBM to fund their innovative projects aimed at developing a low-cost sensor for rainfall monitoring and flood forecasting, and creating sustainable model villages.

IBM announced on Wednesday the grants under its Smarter Planet initiative, which would also award nine other organizations from different parts of the world. The IBM Centennial Grants are both monetary and in-kind awards up to US$100,000 each and fund innovative projects in areas such as healthcare, energy and food safety, stated a press release.

"Non-profit and educational organizations are the lifeblood of local communities, and we want to help them by offering support to build a smarter planet," said Stanley S. Litow, vice-president of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs at IBM.

He added that in conjunction with their employees making their skills available through massive volunteer efforts, these grants would help non-profits and educational organizations meet their key goals.

The innovative project of the IIT-Kgp — Sensor Web for Smarter Cities (SENSIT) — would develop a low-cost sensor-based solution to assist with rainfall monitoring and flood forecasting, providing flood warnings to citizens and local authorities.

Drishtee Foundation would work on a project to upgrade its model villages into sustainable 'smarter villages.' It is expected to help aggregate critical services and products related with livelihood, agriculture and information services, and making services accessible to farmers and village community, who are deprived by a lack of access to critical information and technology leading to a big gap in opportunities.

The other awardees of the grant are ATN Telecentre Information and Business Association from Brazil), El Agora from Argentina, Foundation for the Training and Protection of Mentally Handicapped Children from Turkey, Irish Cancer Society from Ireland, National Association of Community Health Centers from United States , Singapore Green Building Council from Singapore, United Way Ottawa — Ottawa Neighborhood Study from Canada, The Vermont State College system from United States and Wiener Tafel from Austria.