Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF)? 1. NIF is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology under the Central Government. 2. NIF is an initiative to strengthen the highly advanced scientific research in India's premier scientific institutions in collaboration with highly advanced foreign scientific institutions. Select the correct answer using the code given below. Correct Answer 1 only The correct answer is 1 only. Key Points The National Innovation Foundation - India (NIF) is an autonomous body set up in March 2000 with the assistance of the Department of Science and Technology under the Central Government at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Hence, Statement 1 is correct. Vision: It is India's national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. Hence, Statement 2 is not correct. Mission: Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators. Objectives: NIF scouts, support and spawn' grassroots innovations developed by individuals and local communities in any technological field, helping in human survival without any help from the formal sector. NIF helps grassroots innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders get due recognition, respect, and reward for their innovations. It also tries to ensure that such innovations diffuse widely through commercial and/or non-commercial channels, generating material or non-material incentives for them and others involved in the value chain. Initiatives: NIF recognizes grassroots innovators and school students at the national level in its various National Biennial Grassroots Innovation Award Functions and annual Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam Ignite Children Award functions. NIF has also set up an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) for product development and strengthening in-house research. The INSPIRE Award - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) is being revamped and executed by the Department of Science & Technology and National Innovation Foundation-India to align it with the action plan for the "Start-up India" initiative. Grassroots Innovation Design Studio (GRIDS) facilitates formal design inputs to the grassroots innovations at premier institutes viz NID Ahmedabad, IIT Gandhinagar, NIT Srinagar, Srishti School of Arts, Design & Technology, Bengaluru. Students' Club for Augmenting Innovations (SCAI) is a nationwide student movement, comprising students from India's best management and technology institutes that provides product development, mentoring, and monitoring support to innovators and traditional knowledge holders at the grassroots. Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) is one of its kind of dedicated risk fund in the world, set up with the support of SIDBI in October 2003 and operationalized in January 2004 that provides financial support to grassroots innovators. Grassroots Technological Innovations Acquisition Fund (GTIAF) sanctioned in 2011 and operationalized in 2012 obtains the rights of technologies from innovators after compensating them for the same, with the purpose of disseminating and diffusing them at low or no cost for the larger benefit of the society. Gandhian Inclusive Innovation Challenge Awards aim towards developing new solutions for three challenges: paddy transplanter, wood stove, and tea leaf-plucking machine. The Grassroots to Global (G2G) model propagated by NIF has proved that Indian innovators can match anyone in the world when it comes to solving problems creatively and they perform better than others in generating greater sustainable alternatives by using local resources frugally. NIF provides in situ incubation of grassroots technologies to the innovator at his/her place. All incubation facilities (financial or technical support, mentoring, etc.) are extended to the innovator at his place where he continues to work on his/her ideas or innovations. NIF has established community workshops in different rural areas of the country at the premises of seasoned innovators so that other grassroots innovators of the region can have access to fabrication facilities locally. Also, they could learn from the experiences of seasoned innovators. This is expected to promote the conversion of an idea into a prototype faster. The inverted model of innovation implies that children invent, engineers & designers fabricate and companies commercialize. Innovations' exhibition at the President House and The Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) Since 2010, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has been hosting an exhibition of innovations near its Mughal Garden to showcase the creativity and ingenuity of common people. Since 2015, NIF and Rashtrapati Bhavan is organizing a Festival of Innovation which comprises roundtables on various topics in relation to Innovation in addition to the Exhibition. NIF is in the process of constructing a National Inclusive Innovation Centre for Development (NIICenD) at Amrapur village in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It aims to achieve the global standards of design and affordable excellence in terms of greenery, accommodation of interest of non-human sentient beings, the natural flow of water, wind & light, net-zero and renew-ability of the structure so that after even 100 years of existence, most parts of the building remain usable.