Graminno - Innovation for Rural Development

Our Mission

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.

Background and Motivation

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.

Project 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 a strong push back. 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. The projects will be beta-tested at Aatley before spreading the activities to other locations in the country.

Ongoing Projects

Project Urja - Energy & Utilities

Designing and implementing low cost, independently deployable solar access points that provide modular multifunctional utility add ons including light, power source, local area network and others. Includes training rural youth to assemble and maintain such units, thereby providing both, education and a sustainable source of livelihood.

Project Jal - Water Harvesting

Designing and implementing best practices for water harvesting, storage and distribution using environmentally and economically sustainable techniques.

Project Makaan - Local Materials Based Construction

Homes are the most expensive of basic needs that significantly contribute to 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.

Partnerships & Collaborations

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.

Roadmap for 2020

The road map for 2020 is to initiate the various projects under the Graminno initiative at the beta site of Aatley. Though each of these is multi-year projects, the objectives for 2020 are to create the basic designs and prototypes, establish infrastructural dependencies, involve the rural community, and identify partnerships and collaborations.