Seeding innovation in Karnataka’s Challakere Premium

In 2010, the Indian Institute of Science established its second campus in Challakere. Science and Engineering for Economic Development (SEED), an initiative by IISc’s Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID) has been working with the local population for three years now to explore and develop best practices in agriculture and wool and blanket weaving in the region. Apart from its latest initiative, which focuses on STEM education for school students in the region, SEED is now mulling a start-up incubation centre in Challakere.

Known as the ‘oil city of Karnataka,’ Challakere in Chitradurga is also synonymous with its coarse wool blankets or Challakere kamblis. The local economy has been traditionally dependent on the weaving of these blankets, besides sheep rearing and agriculture. 

In 2010, the Indian Institute of Science established its second campus in Challakere. Science and Engineering for Economic Development (SEED), an initiative by IISc’s Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID) has been working with the local population for three years now to explore and develop best practices in agriculture and wool and blanket weaving in the region. Apart from its latest initiative, which focuses on STEM education for school students in the region, SEED is now mulling over a start-up incubation centre in Challakere.

“SEED looks at certain chosen science areas to work on where we feel that it can make a big difference. To begin with, we have chosen certain things which we thought are mostly relevant for the underprivileged class of the society,” explains Dr. Amitava Pramanik, Head – SEED.

He points out that 40-45% of the population in Challakere is from Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe communities and are underprivileged. A large part of the population is nomadic and rear sheep.

The weaving activity in the region has significantly declined over the years. In 2009 the government took over 13,000 acres of the grasslands of Challakere to build Science City. Several villagers have alleged that this cut off their access to water and land to graze sheep. Buying fodder proved too expensive resulting in distress sale of the sheep, and this, according to them has been one of the reasons for decline of the local industry.

One of the biggest buyers of the Challakere kambli was the Indian army. However, post 2019 the army reportedly refused to renew the contract.

“When we started looking into the wool tech and design, we undertook a lot of surveys because we wanted to understand the needs of the locals and the nature of their occupations. Our objective was to find out what needed to be done and not necessarily go in with our own agenda. We wanted to evaluate their needs and what science and technology could do for them,” notes Dr. Priyanka Sachan, Project Co-Ordinator -SEED.