Graminno - Innovation for Rural Development

Graminno is an Accion Labs Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to use technology and innovation to facilitate environmentally and economically sustainable rural development in India.

India is a country of myriad contradictions. On the one hand, it has grown to be one of the largest economies in the world, and an increasingly important player in the emerging global order. Indian cities have become hubs for leaps in innovation, technology, education, and communication. On the other hand, a majority of the country is still rural and lacks access to basic necessities such as housing, energy, water, and food. The Graminno initiative therefore aims to address this unequal distribution of opportunity by expanding technological innovations beyond just urban conglomerates and into rural spaces.

The projects under the Graminno initiative aim to design and implement a revolutionary approach to rural development using environmentally and economically sustainable methodologies and open source technologies. These projects will leverage Accion Labs’ expertise in emerging technologies, it’s highly evolved Innovation Development Lifecycle (IDLC) and globally distributed presence to arrive at highly innovative solutions to rural development.

Graminno - the name is derived from the Hindi word Gramin (ग्रामीण) meaning rural, and Innovation - representing the vision of creating a revolutionary approach to rural development using innovative solutions. Graminno was conceived by the leadership team of Accion Labs and incorporated as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Accion Labs provides innovative digital solutions using emerging technologies to customers around the world. Accion's primary development centers and a bulk of its Innovation Center professionals are located in India. Though Accion has been a regular contributor to various social initiatives over the years, merely philanthropic contribution would not really represent the true value that Accion could bring. Accion Labs' leadership team hence resolved to invest part of its most valuable resources - the Innovation Development Lifecycle and expertise in emerging technologies to create solutions for social impact.

India is a country of myriad contradictions. On the one hand, it has grown to be one of the largest economies in the world, and an increasingly important player in the emerging global order. Indian cities have become hubs for leaps in innovation, technology, education, and communication.

On the other hand, a majority of the country is still rural and lacks access to basic necessities such as housing, energy, water, and food. The Graminno initiative therefore aims to address this unequal distribution of opportunity by expanding technological innovations beyond just urban conglomerates and into rural spaces.

The projects under the Graminno initiative aim to design and implement a revolutionary approach to rural development using environmentally and economically sustainable methodologies and open source technologies. These projects will leverage Accion Labs' expertise in emerging technologies, it's highly evolved Innovation Development Lifecycle (IDLC) and globally distributed presence to arrive at highly innovative solutions to rural development.

The approach is to work with rural communities to design and facilitate innovative solutions that not only address critical needs, but also help them create better education and livelihood opportunities for themselves.

Aatley - Beta Site

To ensure that the Graminno projects have the maximum impact, it was decided to look for a rural location that had minimal exposure to conventional development and infrastructure. Further, the location needed to be close enough to one of Accion‘s development centers to simplify the logistics involved in implementing the projects.

After a long search that took our scouting team all across the country exploring village after village, the team chanced to locate a small village about 225 km (140 miles) from Accion’s Mumbai center. The village is called Aatley (आतले) and is largely untouched by the juggernaut of the conventional development system.

Initial efforts to connect with the village community in Aatley were met with strong pushback. However, after repeated visits over a year, combined with additional measures to establish our presence in the village, the community has provided a place to host the Graminno base camp within the village. This base camp will be used to conduct all on-site activities of the Graminno projects. Further, a local youth named Tushar Karavade, a resident of the village has been appointed as a facilitator for all Graminno projects.

Homes in the Village

Graminno Base Camp at Aatley

Tushar Karavade, Graminno on Site Facilitator

The projects will be beta-tested at Aatley before spreading the activities to other locations in the country.

Project Urja - Energy & Utilities

The Graminno village, like many other villages in India and around the world has limited supply of electric power. There are frequent outages during which the residents are left with no alternative but burn wood or use diesel powered generators to get any work done.

Project Urja is an initiative to create sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy for the village. The project is designed along the primary principles of training the villagers to construct and maintain these facilities on their own. Providing ready solutions for solar or wind energy would at address serve shortterm needs of the village. To allow them to leverage these energy sources in the long term, it is important to make the villagers self-sufficient.

The project will train the villagers about the basic principles of how solar energy works, ways to source all the materials such as solar panels, controllers, and inverters, efficient ways for wiring and distribution of the energy within a home or workplace. The project will also financially support the village by providing access to subsidized materials.

Once the village is able to create and sustain their energy requirements, the project will facilitate villagers to collaborate with engineers in Accion Labs as well as other technology organizations, to design and create innovative solutions that will provide both, better quality of life as well as livelihood for the village without having to migrate to urban areas.

Project Jal - Water Harvesting

The only source of water that the village uses are natural water springs in the mountain side. The spring water has been tapped and stored in a tank uphill and supplies water to various community outlet points spread through the village. These are areas demarcated for filling water and for washing. Villagers fill water in vessels and carry these vessels to their homes. Most of this is done by the women of the village and is a tedious and tiresome process that can be easily avoided by using more efficient mechanisms for transporting water to their homes.

They also use these community areas for washing their dishes and kitchen utensils as well as clothes. The utilization of water for washing is one of the primary reasons for wastage. The problems of water are further exacerbated by the indiscriminate use of spring water for washing.

Providing more efficient mechanisms for washing of vessels and clothes will make a significant impact not only in the conservation of available spring water but also in reducing the manual effort required in washing.

The aim of this project is to train villagers inefficient utilization methodologies, conservation of water, water harvesting, and wastewater treatment using natural processes.

The project has the support of the village governance committee, and the entire village is ready to donate their effort for any kind of labour or skill that they already know or can learn.

Project Makaan - Local Materials Based Construction

Homes are the most expensive of basic needs that significantly contribute to the quality of life in a rural setting. This project aims to use local materials and environmentally sustainable building processes to create options for the construction and maintenance of low-cost individual homes rather than the conventional approach of mass-produced residences.

Most of the houses in the village are made from the red colored laterite stone available, bound with either mud or cement. The coating is mud or cement plaster. All villagers aspire to build houses that are similar to urban houses, and many have spent their hard earned money in transporting the materials and expensive labour involved in building such houses.

The project aims to provide knowledge, training and methodologies for construction of low cost accommodation for the villagers using natural materials and using skills that are locally available within the village itself.

Geodesic Domes by Vigyan Ashram

Wattle & Cob Construction by Thannal

Mud & Lime plaster by Thannal

The Graminno initiative seeks to identify and partner with individuals and organizations that have deep expertise in areas related to various projects. The collaboration is expected to accelerate and enhance the value of the Graminno projects as well as similar initiatives that may be undertaken by such partners.

Vigyan Ashram, Pabal (VA)

Vigyan Ashram is a center of Indian Institute Of Education (IIE) Pune. Vigyan Ashram is continuously engaged in developing, adapting and disseminating new technologies useful to rural communities.
Focus Areas:
1. To develop post harvest technologies
2. Develop electronic systems for precision agriculture
3. Develop farm equipment
4. Renewable energy applications
5. Water and waste management

Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI)

SRISTI is a developmental voluntary organization aiming to strengthen the creativity of/at/for grassroots communities, including individual innovators.
- It supports eco−friendly solutions to local problems being scouted, spawned and spread by the Honey Bee Network for over 2б years
- It nurtures ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity, common property resources, cultural diversity and educational innovators
- Technological innovations and traditional knowledge to generate frugal innovations for sustainable development at all levels

Life Link Eco Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Life Link Eco Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a green social business initiative founded in 2001 and focused on delivering Soil Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering Solutions for rural and urban waste recycling, sanitation, and water quality improvement
Primary Features
- Free of all chemical use, surpassing Pollution Control Board norms
- Not producing any sludge or Greenhouse Gasses − offering a Zero−discharge solution free of smell and noise
- Low on power use and other operating costs
- Offering Decentralized and Centralized Solutions

Thannal - Hand Sculpted Homes (THANNAl)

Thannal Hand Sculpted Homes is a Natural Building Awareness Croup, under Thannal Mud Homes Trust, based in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.

Thannal believes in the revival of indigenous knowledge in shelter-making, which was practiced in India from the Vedic ages. Descriptions about pozzolanic reactions of suda (lime) and surkhi (burnt mud) are found in Vishnudharmottara‘s Chitrasutra and how to use natural derivatives from plants and animals effectively in construction. These ancient practices are merged with modern architectural best practices to create a modern methodology for construction that leverages local materials, and to build hand-sculpted homes.

Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (HBCSE)

The MakerSpace at HB+SE focuses on Do−it−Tourself (DIT), free and open source (FOSS) scientific instruments, hardware or anything that involves making, tinkering and engineering for research and educational purposes. Such activities are designed to help students and teachers develop ideation, design thinking, parametric thinking, computational thinking and physical computing abilities. The new media technologies and rapid prototyping tools such as laser cutters, 3D printing, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi have revolutionized the maker movement and empowered people to bring their ideas to life.