The Challenge was launched to mobilise India’s scientific, academic and innovation ecosystem to develop credible, near-term climate hazard forecasting models
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), with support from the Gates Foundation and Dalberg Advisors, has announced the winners of the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, a national initiative to advance DiCRA (Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture) as a Digital Public Infrastructure for rural climate resilience.
The Challenge was launched to mobilise India’s scientific, academic and innovation ecosystem to develop credible, near-term climate hazard forecasting models and decision-ready applications for agriculture, rural finance, insurance and public planning.
Following are the winners of the Challenge: SatSure Analytics India Pvt Ltd (first prize), EXPERIQS Pvt Ltd (second prize), and VARSAPRADAYA Pvt Ltd (third prize).
Climate vulnerability index
SatSure Analytics India Pvt Ltd developed a composite climate vulnerability index that scores villages on climate risk by combining exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The solution uses satellite and climate datasets to generate dynamic village-level risk scores that can support farmer advisories, financial-sector portfolio assessment, and public planning.
EXPERIQS Pvt Ltd developed a block-level drought intelligence platform combining drought indices, vegetation signals and climate projections. The solution translates climate intelligence into crop-cycle impact assessments, farmer financial stress signals and application programming interface-enabled outputs that can support farmers, farmer producer organisations, rural lenders, insurers and public agencies.
VARSAPRADAYA Pvt Ltd developed a 3-km, 20-year hazard scoring and advisory engine built on DiCRA. The solution combines climate projections, satellite data and field intelligence to support irrigation scheduling, crop-risk alerts, rural credit assessment, afforestation planning and village-level vulnerability mapping.
Mutl-stage selection
A media statement said that the winners were selected through a multi-stage process that began with over 150 applications from startups, academic institutions, research organisations and private-sector innovators.
Following an initial screening, 20 teams were shortlisted to develop prototypes with inputs from a Technical Advisory Group. Eleven teams progressed to the final round, where they presented their solutions to an eminent jury comprising experts in climate science, digital public infrastructure, agriculture, finance and public policy, from leading institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, the World Bank, ThinkAg, the Gates Foundation and the India Meteorological Department.
The final solutions were assessed on solution coherence, technical depth, usability, integration readiness, artificial intelligence and machine learning approach, team capacity, and potential to support real-world decision-making.
Quoting Shaji Krishnan V, Chairman of NABARD, the statement said: “Through the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, NABARD sought to bring India’s best scientific and entrepreneurial minds together to convert climate data into practical, decision-ready solutions. The overwhelming response demonstrates that India has both the talent and the technology to build a new generation of climate intelligence for rural India. Our endeavour now is to take the most promising innovations beyond the Challenge and explore how they can strengthen DiCRA and support more resilient decisions at the farm, financial institution and policy levels.”
