Grameen Foundation India Launches Tech4Inclusion Challenge for Tech Startups

Grameen Foundation India (GFI) recently launched the challenge for augmented reality-based solutions to advance financial literacy and inclusion. The challenge invites technology startups working on cutting edge augmented reality/virtual reality technologies and encourages them to come up with innovative solutions to address the challenges in advancing digital and financial inclusion of low-income people, particularly women.

The virtual launch event Technology for Growth and Inclusion saw engaging discussions on the scope and use of AR/VR technology in the financial inclusion space. Welcoming the participants, Prabhat Labh, CEO, GFI said, Technology can play a crucial role in inclusive growth and development and Grameen is focused on bringing scalable solutions to impact the excluded populations. The challenge is an opportunity for entities working in the Augmented Reality and Machine Learning space to design a mobile application for delivering financial literacy, he added.

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The inaugural session had a welcome address by Shivangi Jain, Associate Vice President, Startup India, an initiative of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Highlighting India’s achievement in the financial inclusion space through the epoch making PMJDY scheme, she said, India has achieved a lot in this space. However, there were still millions of unbanked people in the country and Grameen’s initiative to support tech startups to work in this space is remarkable. She encouraged the tech startups to take advantage of various schemes of Startup India.

Speaking at the inaugural, Gaurav Chakraverty, Chief Operating Officer spoke about the utilization of cutting-edge solutions for the communities. The inaugural session was followed by a panel discussion featuring: Ambarish Mitra, CEO Blippar; NatarajKuntagod, Principal Director R&D, Accenture; Pankaj Mishra, Co-founder Factor Daily; Pradeep Khanna, President VR/AR Association; SasidharThumuluri, CEO Basix Sub-K; and SucharitaEashwar, Founder, Catalyst for Women Entrepreneurship (CWE). The panelists discussed the imperative to focus on the users and their needs and building technology solutions that were aligned to the local context and acted as an enabler.

Dipika Prasad, representing Last Mile Money, IDEO introduced the concept of human-centered design and explained how this can help in creating solutions that are desirable, feasible and viable. The mobile applications developed under the AR challenge will receive financial assistance from Grameen and will be deployed by the Business Correspondent Agent Networks to deliver financial literacy to their customers. This launch event was organized by Grameen Foundation India in partnership with Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI), Blippar, Global Mindset, IDEO, Last Mile Money, 10,000 Startups and VR/AR Association.