Emerging Trends in Society and Economy

Our society and economy are seeing major disruptions – from climate change, technology, the changing nature of work, consumption patterns and cultural trends demanding change in every aspect of our lives. These deliberations will landscape the change as it impacts rural India and its inter-dependent connect with the larger society and national economy. Embracing white space analysis, we will discuss the vulnerabilities related to inequality and the real opportunities to further human well-being and economic growth in our fast-changing world.

Business in rural: Future Shapers of India Roundtable

Innovative businesses bring new ideas, skills and investment in rural India, creating wealth and well-being. Young scions are laying a new commitment to leverage this rural economy and engage with the resource endowments creatively. In this discussion with select young India Inc. leaders, we uncover their vision and efforts in shaping the future of India’s villages.

Change the Picture: Where You’re Born = What You Can be

Our pincode defines our opportunities, aspirations, and experiences in our lives. The deficits that exist in our villages make it disproportionality challenging for deprived rural communities to achieve intergenerational mobility. This session seeks to situate “”location determinants”” as development drivers, draws insights from past efforts, and new multi-stakeholder engagement formats to expand public welfare support, incentives for private sector involvement, and community aspirations.”

Opportunities for Rural Healthcare: Infra, Funding & Digital

There are great shifts in the Indian health landscape, thanks to a larger government focus on building more frontline infrastructure, privatization, digitization and socialization of healthcare practices. These interconnections create new opportunities and challenges for care-seeking, accessing and delivering a health care service. The ‘State of Healthcare in Rural India – 2023’ report from The Development Intelligence Unit (DIU) will be released in the session, presenting the realities and expectations of rural communities. This will set the context for exploring existing public health programs and various interventions to prompt shifts toward designing new practical approaches to public health.

Bharat : Accelerating Change with Design

Modern society and its economies, particularly the post-Marshall world view, can be shaped by forecast modelling of technology, the environment, production and consumption, learning and business processes. Many forces, often unknown, influence people’s choices and promote change in each other. The accepted conventions about producing and distributing standardized products and services to serve the “economy of scale” are being replaced by flexible, networked and tailored offerings in an “economy of choice.” Whether a government agency, hospital, auto manufacturer, publisher, investment fund, or a large NGO, organizations need greater flexibility, responsiveness and speed that design solutions provide. This session will explore advanced design frameworks and methods that enable people and NGOS, the private sector and government agencies to respond to complex opportunities and problems.

Solving the Paradox: Need for Accelerated Growth Vs Falling Female Workforce

The decline in the female workforce is a much studied and talked about trend that continues to defy policy and civil society interventions. But there is more to understand about patriarchal restrictions, sexuality, workplace safety and mobility connected with the larger social and economic forces rooted in traditions and modernity. The session will seek to lay out the challenges, drawing from recent development efforts on structural challenges and deterrents, gender intentionality in public system programmes, the evolving public policy and market signals trends.

Technology on the Right Side of Social Justice

This session aims to explore the symbiotic relationship between technology-driven solutions and effective public policy frameworks in driving the rural renaissance, enabling equitable access to essential services and promoting inclusive socio-economic progress in rural communities. India’s rural landscape has long faced challenges in delivering essential services due to factors such as low population density and high transaction costs. Access to quality healthcare, education, financial services, and other essential facilities has remained limited, posing barriers to inclusive growth and development of rural communities. However, the advent of India’s many digital public infrastructure (India Stack and more) has the potential to revolutionize service delivery, transforming the lives of rural residents and ushering in a rural renaissance.

Disruptive Technologies and how they can address wicked problems in rural India

The session aims to explore the role of disruptive technologies like blockchain, AI and ML, 3D printing, 5G technology, etc in addressing complex social challenges in India. The panellists will discuss various aspects of technology deployment in an underdeveloped market like India, its impact on the social and for-profit sectors, challenges in adapting technology to social issues, the importance of data architecture, the role of philanthropy funds in supporting artificial intelligence (AI), and the influence of technology on human behaviour and cultural context in designing development programs.

Rural Renaissance Concert – Naya Savera and Dashugs

Village Square Media Fellows have travelled the length of breadth of our villages, finding stories that paint a picture of vibrancy and energy but also of the challenges of rural life. This book launch at the lively venue of Dilli Haat highlights the work of Village Square’s nine exceptional aspiring journalists who give us a real feel of what is happening in rural India and why even the sky is not a limit. The launch will be made even better by including some of the biggest rural media influencers in India, who will also help us explore the social world of #ICYMI and #FOMO that’s impacting the daily life of rural Indians.

Many Corners of Village Square – Media Fellows Book Launch

Village Square Media Fellows have travelled the length of breadth of our villages, finding stories that paint a picture of vibrancy and energy but also of the challenges of rural life. This book launch at the lively venue of Dilli Haat highlights the work of Village Square’s nine exceptional aspiring journalists who give us a real feel of what is happening in rural India and why even the sky is not a limit. The launch will be made even better by including some of the biggest rural media influencers in India, who will also help us explore the social world of #ICYMI and #FOMO that’s impacting the daily life of rural Indians.

Bharat Ek Kahani | Culture and Cuisines from Rural India

India’s exceptional cuisine is known the world over for its vivacity, colour and lip-smacking flavour. But some of its regional delights are yet to be discovered by the hungry masses. So experience the known and unknown delicacies at the Bharat Ek Kahani Corner brought together with National Street Vendors Association of India and Delhi’s premier organic chain, the Altitude Store.

Habitat for India @ 2047

This session explores the complex and evolving dynamics of the rural-urban transition in India and its impact on rural habitats. With over fifty percent of rural India’s output coming from outside of cultivation, it resembles a “sunken peasant habitat,” interacting with fast changing economic, social and environmental factors. Experts will help us examine how the increased demand for human development, civic services and improved amenities is changing how rural India lives. We will explore the disintegration of the traditional organizing principles of the “village world” across space, time, tradition and society, as well as its impact on spatial planning, habitat delivery and civic amenities. The discussion will sketch out this transformation and the “future rural habitat.”

The Citizen View : Experiencing Governance

We will explore the incongruities of the administrations, politics and development experienced by the average rural India through a “Citizen Roundtable” (sarpanch, frontline workers and women leaders). Many studies establish the efficiency of government-led redistribution and the delivery of government-led development services as critical to building a just society. For millennia the Indian state has traditions reflected in rights over Jal, Jangal, Jameen that are still present along with colonial administration overhangs. On this rich and varied mosaic, the modern Indian welfare and development administration has been overlaid at different points of time without keeping territorial integrity at the cutting edge of citizen inter-face. This session explores the ground-up view of the complex Indian State system and explores the interlocking levers of change that a citizen can exercise while engaging with her public representatives, duty-bearers and service providers

New Education Policy: Primary Education in Rural India

“The National Education Policy of India 2020 (NEP 2020) outlined a comprehensive framework for education in rural India. It aims to transform India’s education system by 2030 and prioritizes the universal foundational stage learning requirement. During the Session the first-ever State of Elementary Education in Rural India report, from the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), will be released, bringing insights and improvement opportunities into the state of primary education in rural India. The session will not only deliberate on pathways to the NEP 2020 vision, but will discuss the innovative ways of bringing stranded communities into the education system. It will bring into focus the voices traditionally out of the systemic orbit and how developing social capital of remote villagers has the potential to transform the primary education system. The National Education Policy of India 2020 prioritizes universal foundational learning and aims to transform education for rural India by 2030. In this session, we will release the ‘State of Rural Primary Schools – 2023’ report from the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU) that will insights and actionable takeaways on primary education in rural India. The conversation will deliberate on pathways to realize the vision of the NEP by involving rural communities that have been kept away from the education system in India.”

Philanthropy: An Agenda with the Welfare State

In a democracy the role of government goes beyond being an “agent” of citizens enforcing rights to being an active “force of change” addressing social and economic aspirations. The outlay-outcome gap means the bulk of today’s poor people are unable to benefit from state policies and market signals. Yet India’s recent vast economic growth gives the Indian state huge financial resources for social sector spending. Likewise, high-net-worth individuals have more reserves than ever before for philanthropy. And the philanthropic capital coming from corporate India, through corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes has a unique space of deployment as an impact multiplier. Philanthropies have a critical role in building up a well-functioning NGOS, think tanks and expertise available to government. This session will seek to lay a blueprint for philanthropy to work with government, bringing best practices, proof of concept and professional expertise. After all, the idea is not new, Nehru had invited the Ford Foundation to help build state capacity long ago. But where are we today?