Connecting development and deployment islands for massive multiplier effect on rural transformation

WHEELS signs MoU with the Ministry of Education / ImageCourtesy: WHEELS

As India strives to become a developed economy by 2047, it must advance its predominantly rural and underdeveloped regions, which make up more than two-thirds of the country.

This socio-economic progress involves tackling issues in water, health, education, energy, livelihoods, and the environment. Given the vast relevant population (nearly 800 million) and the complexity of these challenges, success hinges on the extensive application of technologies, innovative models, and coordinated implementation strategies.

Recognizing these challenges, the Government of India and a network of engineering and research institutions are spearheading initiatives such as establishing rural development centers at IITs and institutes like CSIR and ICMR, alongside platforms like Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) and Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG at seven IITs).

While these efforts are generating promising technology-enabled solutions, the journey from concept to large-scale adoption remains in infancy, often resulting in many promising innovations remaining confined to academic four-walls.

Any such journey required methodical progression (from concept to pilot to limited deployments to systemwide scale) supported by complimentary expertise that is not natural domains of teaching and research institutions. Hence a major structural gap persists inhibiting the realization of the expected potential from these premier institutions and programs.

WHEELS Global Foundation, a social impact platform of over 500,000 IIT alumni, is addressing this gap through the launch of the ‘Impact Collaboration Platform (ICP)’. This initiative, in partnership with UBA (a flagship program of the Ministry of Education, GOI) and Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA), aims to create an effective collaboration platform to accelerate rural transformation and development. 

Under UBA, nearly 3800 higher-education participating institutions are working on the development of new ideas and solutions. UBA registered institutions (‘Participating Institutions’) adopt and visit the villages to assess their needs, problems, and requirements, and then submit proposals to tackle them through the UBA ecosystem of capabilities (research, labs, faculty, students, funds).

VIBHA, a non-profit launched through the Swadeshi Science Movement at the all-India level, inspires youth to engage in nation-building and socio-economic advancement of the underserved.

Together with WHEELS, which facilitates maturation and scaling through its NGO coalition and Pan IIT alumni network, there is potential for a comprehensive development-to-deployment capability essential for achieving the goals.

The Impact Collaboration Platform bridges research institutions and field entities (NGOs and social impact organizations) to deploy solutions that address significant challenges affordably. Rapid advancement from development to deployment requires integrating technology, business, operations, and field competencies.

The platform unites five societal pillars: (a) premier research institutions, (b) business professionals with operational expertise, (c) field resources with deployment capacity, (d) financial resources (foundations, CSRs, government bodies), and (e) policy support.

The platform enables concurrent deployments and replications of hundreds of solutions achieving a multiplier effect from the curated solutions in the repository. So one successful solution is visible and available to all to be replicated.

This approach aims to make a material impact on the lives of over 50% of rural and underserved populations and significantly enhance the return on investment (ROI) from institutional R&D.

WHEELS is collaborating with Tech4Seva to develop IT systems supporting these efforts, with the platform expected to be operational within six months. As an outcome, the expansion of the current ERP Portal (administered by UBA) will encompass not only Development Collaboration activities but also Deployment Collaboration activities.

These Deployment Collaboration activities will involve participation from entities focused on implementations, such as NGOs, CSR initiatives, foundations, and support services providers. 

A curated solution repository will be established, featuring solutions that have been vetted and equipped with all necessary details—cost-benefit economics, methods and procedures, resourcing requirements, efficacy evidence, use-case details, and more—to be implementation-ready.

A supporting bench of experts will be available to help troubleshoot business and technical challenges encountered during deployment and scaling. These resulting replications of dozens of solutions will accelerate rural transformation. These collaboration outcomes will be remarkable, driving impactful change and significantly enhancing the effectiveness of development and deployment efforts.

Thus, ICP will solve two major structural gaps in the existing social impact ecosystem in India: (a) drive replications of already existing plethora of compelling innovative solutions, otherwise invisible beyond their limited geographical reach; (b) create seamless pathways from ‘development’ to ‘deployment’, and get dozens of compelling innovations to move rapidly from academic four-walls to target rural beneficiaries in time.

WHEELS leverages alumni & ecosystem capacity (leaders in Corp roles & CSR, IAS officers in Central & State Governments, NGO partners, Councils, Chapters, etc) to build awareness and scaling of a portfolio of compelling initiatives.

By deploying these programs, we aim to achieve the shared objectives of technology-enabled transformation of India’s 20% of the “Rurban” population by 2030 (i.e. 180m+ people), in support of India’s vision of becoming a developed economy by 2047.

We urge all of you with interest in supporting this large underserved segment of India’s future to join WHEELS’ efforts by visiting WHEELS WEBSITE and Getting Involved section which provides numerous ways for you to be part of our journey with your time, talent, and treasury.

The author is the Marketing and Communications Manager, WHEELS Global Foundation.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad)