Q&A with the Winners: Sarat Pradhan
In this Q&A, Sarat Pradhan talks about his team’s solution — “InterGram: Advanced Digital Development Centers for Delivering Essential Community Services over High-speed Broadband in Rural India” — which won 1st Place Technology Applications Proof of Concept prize, sponsored by Intelsat, in the 2021 Connecting the Unconnected Challenge.
1. Please summarize your winning solution
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic, the rural-urban digital divide has widened deeper in India which is a major concern. Though India offers one of the cheapest mobile and broadband internet services (Ex: By 2022, Jio-Fiber and Airtel offer more than 3,000MB data per month starting at ₹700) the rural population is not able to leverage this opportunity to improve their socio-economic condition. Low literacy rate, poor digital skill and lack of proper opportunities are the main causes of poverty among rural masses. We at InterGram provide mobile, web-based services and applications including real time field-based demonstrations to teach rural communities, farmers, SHG workers and unemployed youths towards making them self-sufficient and job ready.
In the last 2 years, we have conducted several farmer melas which has expanded awareness on various latest farming technologies and government schemes. In addition, farmers were given training on how to use bio-fertilizer to increase their crop yield and use mobile based technologies to get updates on various soil conditions and early detection of crop disease etc.
We have also conducted several charity events and health camps which has helped to spread awareness on covid pandemic preparedness program including other programs such as digital awareness. We conducted several SHG workshops which have been instrumental towards creating 153 number of jobs and growing family income and sustaining several women lead small shops/business etc. In addition, we have also conducted youth education and training camps to make them job ready in various sectors.
Currently we have established 2 pilot centers in Odisha and have gathered substantial amounts of data to establish feasibility of the concept and business model. In future, we plan to expand to at least one center in each block within Odisha through franchise model. This will be achieved by forging partnerships with rural entrepreneurs.
2. What is the most unique/innovative aspect about your approach?
Our most unique and innovative aspect of our approach is to create rural hubs in socially and economically impoverished areas that offer assisted e-Community service to generate income, promote financial inclusions and job creation. We do this by close collaboration between technology startups, NGOs, academia and research institutes to maximize impact of our work.
We are using immersive VR/AR experience to train farmers on modern agricultural practices. In addition, use of in-field IoT sensors with embedded 4G SIM has helped to get timely weather information and crop health alerts for farmers. We are also using AI/ML for early detection of crop diseases (ex: leaf blight, rust) in agriculture. We also help promote local products and crafts created by self-help groups(SHG) to sell across national and international markets using mobile and e-commerce technologies.
3. What did you enjoy most about the CTU Competition and Summit Program?
Aside from being a winner we have enjoyed mentorship and co-operation from CTU competition program manager. We are especially thankful to Ashutosh Dutta and Chris Ng for providing timely suggestions and words of encouragement.
4. What new work have you done since the 2021 CTU Summit? Did you invest your winnings into the project?
Since the 2021 CTU summit, we have conducted 14 numbers of farmer mela which has expanded awareness on various latest farming technologies and government schemes. In addition, farmers were given training on how to use bio-fertilizer to increase their crop yield and use mobile based technologies to get updates on various soil conditions and early detection of crop disease etc. Also, farmers were given training on modern agricultural practices using AR/VR technologies.
We have also conducted 07 number of charity events and health camps which has helped to spread awareness on covid pandemic preparedness programs including other programs such as premature blindness and nutritional and vitamin deficiencies among rural population.
We conducted several SHG workshops which have been instrumental towards creating 153 number of jobs and growing family income and sustaining several women lead small shops/business etc. In addition, we have also conducted youth education and training camps to make them job ready in various sectors.
Yes, we have used most of the winning into development and execution of the project.
5. What is your estimate of the number of people impacted by your program?
We estimate around 344 number of people who were impacted by our program. Out of them approximately 103 numbers are farmers, 153 are from SHG especially women and 88 number are local unemployed youth.