Ideas that can change India

First:

“Unique Identification Project (UID) of Government of India”

Rationale for choice: All social benefits and structural economic redistributive policies intended for the poor must reach the poor with minimum administration costs, quickly and efficiently. UID is in line with long
term strategic vision of the government to create a response framework against
distribution led food shortages primarily as well as creating an enabling
environment to integrate the poor people with market driven trade, commerce and
financial inclusion road map of the Planning Commission. UID will assist the
government to create formal response mechanisms to deal with asymmetric threat
contingencies and plan ahead for scenarios that can factor full scale shortages
in future.

Project Summary: UID Project intended to map every Indian (covering more than a billion plus demographic in India) is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of the Prime Minister of India to integrate all Indians into the social
redistributive programmes of Govt of India with particular emphasis on the
Below Poverty Line (BPL) segment. An unique identity card (as UID is intended
to be) that will enable even those below the poverty line to open bank accounts
(financial inclusion), obtain a telephone and/or mobile phone connection
including internet connection (connecting with the global audience), receive 100
days of guaranteed employment under 'National Rural Employment Guaranteed
Assistance' (employment security), food stamps for buying "quality" food
at discounts from any super market (food security), file statutory tax returns (widening
the progressive tax net & its administration), receive health care at both
government & private hospitals & receive instant cashless health
insurance reimbursements upon doctor's endorsement at the time of admission (health
security), apply for a proprietor trading license including permit to engage in
imports & exports (empowering global trade & commerce) and make all
kinds of investments incorporating demutualisation (widening market
participation at retail level to create a robust financial market) and enabling
every Indian to participate in the political process of 'exercising their
franchise' (empowering secular democracy through people's mandate incorporating
voter identification) and strengthening active protocol rendition procedures
for security agencies in monitoring & oversight of homeland security (making
India safer).

Hero: The UID project is intended to make all this possible. And the key architect is none other than IIT alumnus & India's foremost technology entrepreneur, visionary and co-founder of Infosys - Mr
Nandan Nilekani. A 'hero' in every possible way. A leader that understands that
"India's
time has truly arrived" to showcase its strengths as a resilient, secular,
inclusive democracy.

Remarks: UID project is perhaps the largest 'social innovation project' anywhere in the world in terms of scale, participation of stakeholders, resource commitment and planned social outcomes in alignment with
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

website link: http://www.uidaicards.com

Note: Evoke agents are encouraged to partner UID to market innovative services in areas of health monitoring & administration, providing education & training services and empowering Indians to
participate in financial markets actively or through intermediaries.

Second:

"India's Solar Mission: Vision 2020" as part of
"National Action Plan on Climate Change".

Rationale: This is another BHAG that will transform the world's largest democracy to comprehensively secure its energy needs for both business & private consumption in order to genuinely leverage its
'demographic dividend' empowering the world's largest "youth population (aged
18-26)" to create wealth and prosperity. The fact that solar energy is
clean and renewable is a testimony of how serious Indian government is
prioritize its commitment to reduce the impact of adverse climate change.

Project summary: A solar energy road-map is drawn to further expand India's current capacity of 3 megawatts (MW) to an estimated 20 gigawatts (GW) by year 2020
and 200 GW by year 2050. This transition to solar energy will elevate the
capacity of those below the poverty line in particular and every Indian
business in general to engage in economic activity reliant on innovative
automation. Embedding solar energy as principal component of National Climate
Change Strategy and building the necessary infrastructure at an estimated US$20
billion is a bold step forward. Everything that is touched by electricity
currently generated mainly from burning fossil fuel (read: coal) is intended to
be replaced with solar energy based systems, equipment and processes. It is
estimated that India
could potentially reduce roughly 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
with its new solar action plan intended to empower access to solar-powered
lighting for 3 million households by year 2012.

Remarks: 'possibility is imagination' | with current worldwide installed solar-generation capacity adding up to a modest 16.5 GW while India's power generation capacity is estimated to be around 150 GW, the "solar
action plan" is profound social innovation both for its scale and its
desired goal to create endearing value in the backdrop of global energy crisis,
depletion of fossil fuels, increased consumption and India's long term
commitment to development and environment.

Website links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSDEL104230

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6220

http://pmindia.nic.in/Pg01-52.pdf

Note: Several Evoke agents are already working on clean tech projects and I hope some of them could really come up with a 'disruptive pricing mechanism' to partner with Indian government and take advantage of the
tremendous opportunities to serve 1.3 billion people use and adopt solar based
product innovations for personal use.

Three:

"Teach India" campaign & "Teach for India" campaigns respectively

(note that both are separate & distinct programmes)

Rationale for choice: Lack of 'quality' education is the fundamental weakness among the Indian population particularly those living in rural areas and deprived economically. As India
(perhaps the only country to leapfrog ahead without the Industrial Revolution
straight from agrarian economy to knowledge economy), there is an opportunity
to include more and more Indian people to participate in the knowledge economy.
With tremendous strides the country's skilled workforce has made in the last
decade, it is time to focus our efforts to impart academic and professional
skills to a fellow citizen so that India
could truly be the center piece of the global knowledge economy.

Project Summary: 'Teach India' campaign builds on its efforts to create a robust primary education through active volunteering and 'Teach for India'
campaign through full time teaching. Both of these projects have profound
implications to lift people out of poverty, to reduce child labour
participation in labour intensive manufacturing industries and incentivise
parents from disadvantaged households that sending their children to schools
would mean more opportunities to receive quality education either from
passionate volunteers or from active professionals. Mid day meals along with
'quality education' can truly change the face of education, skills &
training for Indians still discouraged by formal education framework of
learning in India.

website links:

http://www.teachforindia.org

http://www.teach.timesofindia.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarva_Shiksha_Abhiyan

http://www.ssa.nic.in/

Note: Anybody domiciled in India in their personal capacity can be a part of this social innovation project to spread literacy.

Remarks:

Two of my heroes are involved in similar projects on education, skills and training:

Kiran Bir Sethi: http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/primary-education-design

Bunker Roy: http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/if-nobody-listens-to-your...