How Jharkhand is Tapping Campuses for Rural Innovation

Jharkhandinc Bureau

RANCHI, March 26: Jharkhand is attempting to turn its universities into a field network for identifying grassroots innovation and traditional knowledge by linking students, researchers and rural communities through a structured internship programme.

The latest step in that effort is a call by the Jharkhand Council on Science, Technology and Innovation (JCSTI) for PhD scholars from higher education institutions in the state to serve as Mentor of Mentors under the Jharkhand Grassroot Innovation Internship Scheme.

According to the official communication, the engagement is designed as a four-month, part-time and remote assignment, under which selected scholars will guide student interns and support documentation of grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge systems. An honorarium of Rs 10,000 has been fixed for the engagement period.

The broader programme seeks to create a structured bridge between higher education and rural problem-solving.

Under the internship scheme, student teams from colleges and universities are expected to visit villages and panchayats during the summer break to identify, document and study local innovations and community-based practices that often remain outside formal academic and policy systems.

Each team comprises four students and one faculty mentor from the same institution. These teams submit field-based reports based on interactions with communities and local observations.

Officials said the newly invited Mentor of Mentors will play a supervisory and academic support role, helping student teams with orientation, documentation and reporting.

The significance of the initiative lies in the kind of knowledge it seeks to recognise.

In a state like Jharkhand, where a large section of the population lives in rural and tribal areas, such innovations may include low-cost agricultural methods, local resource management practices, rural engineering solutions and traditional problem-solving systems.

The programme also reflects a wider shift in how rural knowledge is being viewed by institutions.

Rather than treating it as informal or anecdotal, the scheme attempts to place such knowledge within a framework of observation, documentation and possible institutional recognition.

If implemented effectively, the model could help build a repository of local innovations while also exposing students and researchers to field realities beyond the classroom.

Applications for the current round of Mentor of Mentors are open till April 7, according to the notification issued by JCSTI.