Aug 10: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), with support from the The Gates Foundation and Dalberg Advisors announced the winners of the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, a national initiative to advance DiCRA as a Digital Public Infrastructure for rural climate resilience.
The Challenge was launched to mobilize 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. The winning teams were felicitated at NABARD Foundation Day on July 12, 2026.
The teams are:
- SatSure Analytics India Private Limited — First Prize
- EXPERIQS Private Limited — Second Prize
- VARSAPRADAYA Private Limited — Third Prize
The winners were selected through a multi-stage process that began with over 150 applications from startups, academic institutions, research organizations 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.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shaji Krishnan V., Chairman, NABARD, said: “Climate change is no longer a distant risk – it is already influencing how our farmers cultivate, how banks assess rural credit and how public institutions plan for the future. 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.”
Commenting on the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, Country Director, Gates Foundation, said, “The National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge demonstrates the power of open innovation to translate climate data into practical decision-support tools for agriculture and rural finance. We are pleased to support NABARD’s efforts to strengthen DiCRA as shared digital infrastructure for climate-resilient rural development.”
Commenting on the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, Shri Jagjeet Sareen, Partner and India Head, Dalberg Advisors, said, “The Climate Stack Innovation Challenge was based on a simple but important idea: India has the data, scientific talent and institutional capacity to build climate intelligence that is genuinely useful for agricultural decision-making. The Challenge provided a structured process to bring these capabilities together, and we are grateful for the Gates Foundation’s support in helping shape and advance this effort. The quality of submissions shows that India’s research and innovation ecosystem is ready to contribute meaningfully to climate-resilient rural development.”
Winning solutions
SatSure Analytics India Private Limited, a leading Indian space-tech and geospatial analytics company, 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 Private Limited, an artificial intelligence and data analytics company, 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 organizations, rural lenders, insurers and public agencies.
VARSAPRADAYA Private Limited, an agri-climate intelligence startup, developed a 3km, 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.