(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Rural India: Innovation for Inclusiveness

(JULY-2024)

Rural India: Innovation for Inclusiveness

Introduction:

According to the United Nations, innovation for development means using the most up-to-date concepts, tools, and is about finding better ways to create impact on people and the planet, to strengthen resilience and build more inclusive societies. India has been consistently improving its position in Global Innovation Index (Gil), published by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), from 48 in 2020 to 40 in 2023. In Gil 2023, our country is the first among 37 lower-middle-income economies in Central and Southern Asia.

Healthcare

One of the major concerns of rural population is their access to quality healthcare facilities. Most of the highly qualified healthcare professionals tend to choose to work in urban areas. Villagers often find secondary-level healthcare either inaccessible or unaffordable.
The digital innovations have played a major role in addressing this issue effectively to a great extent. e-Sanjeevani -the national telemedicine service- was a landmark in India’s e-health initiatives and a game changer in the rural health sector. The number of consultations crossed 100 million in about 3 years since its launch in November 2019 and now stands at 241 million consultations.

Education

The urban-rural disparity in education has a long-lasting and fathoming impacts in worsening the social inequality.
The children of urban dwellers have the advantage of choosing the best among better options both in case of schools and for extra-curricular trainings. This inequality is reflective in the results of most of the post-secondary competitive exams.
Increased penetration of internet and the boom in education apps have helped the rural children to gain opportunities as good as their urban counterparts. Online classes during the pandemic period were a major catalyst to adopt digital learning in rural India.
Now, the rural children have access to all world-class resources in a single click. Decline in the cost of data and the availability of lower-cost digital device have reinforced the trend of harnessing the power of digital education.

Banking and Finance

Getting credit or accessing the banking services were not easy for the rural population in general, and for the underprivileged in particular. This hurdle has started alleviating with the advent of Aadhar-based banking.
One of the key ways Aadhaar has facilitated bank credit in rural India is by streamlining the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.
Aadhaar’s extensive database and biometric authentication capabilities have enabled banks and financial institutions to improve credit scoring and risk assessment processes, particularly for underserved populations in rural India.

Agriculture

About 70% of the rural households depend on agriculture for livelihood. Raising agriculture productivity and ensuring market linkage have always been stumbling blocks in improving the lives of farmers.
Climate change, pest attacks, lack of easy access to insurance schemes, and deficit of market information often exacerbate the income disparity of rural farmers, and leads to poverty.
Technological advancements and innovative approaches pave way for a paradigm shift to make agriculture profitable and a reliable source of income.

Access to Clean Water

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), access to safe drinking water is when at least 20 liters of water per person per day is available from an improved source within one kilometer of a person’s home.
As per the National Family Health Survey - 5 (2019-21) the population living in households with an improved drinking-water source in urban areas is 98.7% while that in rural areas is 94.6%.
This disparity further impacts in rural health standards, social security, children’s educational opportunities, and earning capability. Startups working on technological innovation have been trying to bridge this gap through various interventions.

Conclusion

Innovation in rural India has contributed significantly towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is well aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of Collective Efforts, and Inclusive Growth.
However, since most of the life-easing innovations are mounted on digital platforms, robust digital infrastructure is essential to sustain the growth and development in rural India. It is also vital to be cautious about the urban bias among large firms which could be detrimental to the idea of rural inclusiveness.