Engaging Rural Networks for innovations– AGNIi-CSC Partnership

AGNIi Mission of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser collaborated with Common Service Center e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC-SPV), a Special Purpose Vehicle that has been set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for facilitating a user-centric technology positioning model for Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). For this purpose, the Mission team:

Define – The team identified use-cases for innovations across various sectors from selected number of villages under CSCs’ Digital Village scheme.1

• 800 Digital Villages targeted in first phase through a user survey.
• The survey addressed the needs of villages through VLEs by identifying pain-points in areas like agriculture, textile, waste management, food processing, etc. in their local community.
• Interest to invest in business opportunities through innovation adoption for solving the pain points. For eg: community level drinking water solutions for villages.

Pilot –Technology Positioning Workshop pilot for digital villages of Alwar District, Rajasthan.

• 5 start-up founders in field of Agri-waste management, animal husbandry, e-waste management etc. pitched solutions to VLEs and SHGs over a digital platform.
• 14 expressions of interest for technology adoption received.

Scale up – Technology Positioning Workshop Series covering 800 Digital villages.

• Organized 8 Technology Positioning Workshops so far activating 256 rural launch points
• Presented 28 innovations from Public R&D, Start-ups and Incubators
• Targeted 6 sectors –Agriculture, Rural Livelihood, Rural Finance, Food Processing, Water and Ed-tech.
• Covered Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan states so far
• Received 600+ interests to adopt the innovation from the participants. For eg: A letter received by CSC from a participant VLE for deploying an air to water conversion technology in his village as Annexure.

Some examples of innovations that saw keen interest include:

• Air-o-water – A humidity and temperature-driven machine which creates water from the air, using a proprietary process.
• Forestica – EasyDatun is an innovative, 100% pre-bristled flavored packaged herb twigs as Natures’ toothbrush. This innovation is incubated under KIIT Technology Business Incubator.
• Interview Air – An AI based Asynchronous Video Profiling Technology Marketplace helping corporate HRs for Talent Acquisition - making sure that candidates from remote areas get an equal opportunity for employment.
• Terafil Water Purification System - A low cost and sustainable water-purification media (disc/candle) developed by CSIR - Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology
• FUMA Labs – They have developed crop-residue-based particle boards that can be used in place of plywood and is incubated under NCL Ventures.