NABARD Announces Winners of the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge
New Delhi: 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 aimed at advancing DiCRA as a Digital Public Infrastructure for climate-resilient rural development.
The challenge was launched to bring together 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 during NABARD Foundation Day celebrations on July 12, 2026.
Top Three Winners
- 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 evaluation process that began with more than 150 applications from startups, academic institutions, research organisations and private-sector innovators.
Following the initial screening, 20 teams were shortlisted to develop prototypes with inputs from a Technical Advisory Group. Of these, 11 teams advanced to the final round, where they presented their solutions before an eminent jury comprising experts in climate science, digital public infrastructure, agriculture, finance and public policy.
The jury included experts from institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, World Bank, ThinkAg, Gates Foundation and India Meteorological Department.
The final solutions were evaluated on parameters including solution coherence, technical depth, usability, integration readiness, artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, team capabilities and their potential to support real-world decision-making.
NABARD Chairman Highlights Need for Climate Intelligence
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Shaji Krishnan V., Chairman, NABARD, said that climate change is no longer a distant risk and is already influencing farming practices, rural credit assessment and public planning.
He said the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge was designed to bring together India’s scientific and entrepreneurial talent to convert climate data into practical, decision-ready solutions.
Dr. Krishnan noted that the strong response to the challenge demonstrates India’s ability to develop a new generation of climate intelligence for rural areas. He added that NABARD will explore taking the most promising innovations beyond the challenge to strengthen DiCRA and support resilient decision-making at the farm, financial institution and policy levels.
Gates Foundation Emphasises Open Innovation
The Country Director of the Gates Foundation said the challenge demonstrates how open innovation can help transform climate data into practical decision-support tools for agriculture and rural finance.
The foundation expressed its support for NABARD’s efforts to strengthen DiCRA as shared digital infrastructure for climate-resilient rural development.
Dalberg Advisors Applauds India’s Innovation Ecosystem
Shri Jagjeet Sareen, Partner and India Head, Dalberg Advisors, said the challenge was based on the idea that India possesses the data, scientific talent and institutional capacity required to develop climate intelligence that can directly support agricultural decision-making.
He said the challenge created a structured platform to bring these capabilities together and noted that the quality of the submissions demonstrated the readiness of India’s research and innovation ecosystem to contribute to climate-resilient rural development.
Winning Solutions
SatSure Analytics India Private Limited — First Prize
SatSure Analytics India Private Limited, a space-tech and geospatial analytics company, developed a Composite Climate Vulnerability Index that assesses village-level climate risks by combining exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
The solution uses satellite and climate datasets to generate dynamic risk scores for villages. These insights can support farmer advisories, financial-sector portfolio assessments and public planning.
EXPERIQS Private Limited — Second Prize
EXPERIQS Private Limited, an artificial intelligence and data analytics company, developed a block-level drought intelligence platform that combines drought indices, vegetation indicators and climate projections.
The platform translates climate intelligence into crop-cycle impact assessments and farmer financial stress indicators. Its API-enabled outputs can support farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, rural lenders, insurers and government agencies.
VARSAPRADAYA Private Limited — Third Prize
VARSAPRADAYA Private Limited, an agri-climate intelligence startup, 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.
The National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge marks an effort to leverage technology, data and innovation to strengthen climate resilience in rural India and enable better-informed decisions for farmers, financial institutions, insurers and policymakers.