Spark the Rise is an initiative by the Mahindra group, which dabbles in everything ranging from the financial credit for the rural poor to raising eco-friendly urban apartments, but is best known for its automobile business. Spark The Rise, the online ecosystem which helps change makers from all over the country to connect and collaborate on the best ideas that impact the society has announced the results of their third round of voting. The shortlisted teams will now be competing for the final prize.
We bring you five awesome projects we spotted on the program.
Team: Srikanth Ch and Rajesh Jampana
Idea: The for profit venture aims to reduce the e-waste landfills in India by providing cash incentives to the users for selling old, used and second hand mobiles on the platform.
Location: Currently operating out of and in Bangalore city only. 
Utilize the Grant: The team would spend the grant on hiring web developers and mobile technicians along with procuring an office space and spending the money towards marketing.
2. Divya Jyothi Charitable Trust
Team: M A Shivprakash
Idea: Providing a pickup and drop facility for the severely disabled students, In the phase on they aim to provide the disabled school students followed by the same for the degree students of the locality.
Location: Mysore, Karnataka
Utilize the Grant: The grant will be used to fund buses for helping the disabled students along with boosting the research in technology driven solutions for the problems faced by the disabled students in transportation.
Team: Seth Petchers
Idea: Shop for Change audits farmer groups and buyers against social and environmental standards to ensure that farmers are not cheated, are provided with training to increase production and lower costs, and can negotiate prices as a group.
Location: Mumbai with visits to farmer groups in rural India
Utilize the Grant: The funding would be used by them to fund the field visits to the farmers, support business development staff and a marketing campaign for the farmer’s produce.
Team: Manoj Soni, Kirti Soni and Ashish Katakwar
Idea: Knowledge Point aims to increase the literacy rate among the poor children especially those suffering from the dual challenges of being below the poverty line and socially backward groups.
Location: Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh
Utilize the Grant: To provide the basic health facilities to the students and raise health awareness. Incentivizing the best students and directors from the Knowledge Point community to create positive action chain.
Team: S Palanivel, Ms.R.Mangayarkarasi and Babu Rajendran
Idea: Lemongrass oil unit for remote forest dwellers who are living in the forest without any livelihood or food security. Rural based business development, women involvement and environment protection will be achieved
Location: Sirumalai and Palani Hills
Utilize the Grant: 10 lemon grass units would be established using the funds along with money required for transportation, training the beneficiaries and setting up the infrastructure.
We wish all of these projects best of luck for their ventures and hope they achieve their true potential and help the community.
Voting for these startups are open here.
* Disclaimer: Mahindra Rise is a sponsor at NextBigWhat.com.
