GIAN GUJARAT GRASSROOTS INNOVATIONS AUGMENTATION NETWORK

Pick the right route in

GIAN runs two different application paths, and they are not interchangeable:

• You are an individual with an innovation, not a registered company: use the general "For Incubation Form" on gian.org. This is GIAN's core, in-situ route.
• You already run a registered startup and want formal incubation: apply to GIANASTRE, GIAN's Section 8 company, instead.
• You need capital to commercialise a validated innovation: look at the Micro Venture Innovation Fund, a no-collateral soft loan run with SIDBI.
• You want national recognition for a grassroots innovation: enter HBNCRIIA, the annual Honey Bee Network award.

How applications work

• General incubation: fill the "For Incubation Form" with your name, address, the innovation's title and category, the problem it solves, and its current status. A pitch deck is optional.
• GIANASTRE: download the application form, complete it with the required documents, and either post a hard copy to GIAN's Ahmedabad office or email it with a copy to startup@gian.org.
• HBNCRIIA and other awards: submit online through the dedicated portal or an online form on gian.org, or by post with a video of the innovation on a pen drive.
• General questions can go to gian@gian.org.

What GIAN says it looks for

• A real, working solution to a local problem, not just an idea on paper.
• For HBNCRIIA specifically: the innovation should be well aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have room to scale. Innovations that have already won a major national award or received substantial investment are excluded from that award.
• A clear declaration that you are the sole owner of the innovation, for award entries.

Before you apply

• Formal registration is not required for GIAN's core incubation support — its whole model is built around individual, often informal, innovators.
• If you are a registered company, GIANASTRE, not the general incubation form, is the right door.
• Keep documentation ready: GIAN's forms ask for details of the problem the innovation solves, its current status, and often supporting material such as a video or pitch deck.

GIAN, the Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network, is a trust and society based in Ahmedabad that has supported individual grassroots innovators since 1997. It was founded by Prof. Anil K. Gupta and the Honey Bee Network, with the Gujarat government, IIM Ahmedabad and SRISTI as its founding supporters, and it describes itself as the world's first incubator built specifically for grassroots innovations.

Who it supports

GIAN's core audience is individual innovators, not registered companies: farmers, artisans, mechanics, students and other informal-sector inventors who have built a working device or practice to solve a local problem, often without formal training or funding. Its own pages give examples such as a clay refrigerator, a manually operated groundnut digger, and a low-cost natural water cooler, developed by individual craftsmen who later formalised small manufacturing businesses around their inventions. For founders who have already registered a company and want more conventional startup incubation, GIAN set up a separate Section 8 company, GIANASTRE, with the Gujarat government's assistance; its named incubatees include health-tech, materials-science and biotech startups.

How the support works

GIAN's stated operating principle is never to ask an innovator to travel to its office. Instead it says it delivers financial, intellectual property, product development, validation and business-development support at the innovator's own location, through periodic consultations. It calls this an "in situ" model, and argues on its own pages that a conventional incubator model, which asks people to relocate and register at a central facility, does not fit innovators who are often rural, low-income and unable to leave their farm or workshop for long stretches. Its Patent assistance cell status with the Gujarat government backs the IP side of this work, and its Micro Venture Innovation Fund, run jointly with SIDBI, gives innovators a soft loan with no collateral or co-obligant requirement to help commercialise a validated idea.

Programmes and awards

Two formal application routes run alongside this in-situ work. GIANASTRE runs incubation for registered startups, with co-working space, labs, mentorship and funding connections. The Micro Venture Innovation Fund is open on a rolling basis to any grassroots innovator who needs capital to scale.

GIAN also runs recurring national and state awards under the Honey Bee Network banner. HBNCRIIA, the Honey Bee Network Creativity and Inclusive Innovation Awards, is an annual competition open to individuals and companies with a grassroots innovation aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals; its 2023-24 cycle, run with Amazon, drew entries from every state and union territory before a shortlist was reduced to a set of finalists honoured at the People's Festival of Innovations. At the state level, GIAN runs the Gujarat Energy Innovation Awards with the Gujarat Power Corporation Limited for innovations in energy conservation, generation and efficiency. Past work includes GRIPP, a one-time acceleration pilot with the Suzuki Innovation Centre that shortlisted rural innovations from GIAN's own database and took a small group through structured mentoring, and an ongoing project sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology to document farmer and artisan knowledge of Himalayan bio-resources across Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim and Nagaland.

Facilities and services

On site in Ahmedabad, GIAN runs a Community Innovation Lab and a Community Food and Nutrition Lab, spaces where local youth, women and others experiment with solutions to local problems in nutrition and conservation. GIANASTRE's incubation space separately gives its startups co-working space, labs and workshops, plus access to 3D printing, CAD software and a digital marketing platform. GIAN also maintains a set of open databases rather than running conventional cohorts, including a Grassroots Innovation Database built with the UNDP Accelerator Lab, a database of roughly 0.43 million abandoned US patents, and a national database of ITI and polytechnic student projects called GIAN NIDHI.

Track record

GIAN's achievements page lists individual innovations it has supported over the years, several carrying granted patents and past National Grassroots Innovation Award wins, including the Mitticool clay refrigerator and the Bullet Santi cotton stripper. It does not publish an audited total of startups or innovators supported, so no overall count is stated here.

Who runs it

GIAN was founded by Prof. Anil K. Gupta, who remains its Honorary Secretary, and is currently led by CEO Dr. Anamika Dey. Its board is chaired by Prof. Bakul Dholakia, a former director of IIM Ahmedabad, and includes Gujarat government officials from the Industries and Mines, Agriculture, and Rural Development departments, alongside SEWA general secretary Reema Nanavaty and other academics and industry members.

Location

GIAN's office is at Bungalow No. 1, Satellite Complex, near Mansi Cross Road, Satellite, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380015.