India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and on its way to becoming a developed country, it is facing several problems in both rural and urban areas. Urban areas are developing rapidly with an increasing number of start-ups and growing opportunities. India is also becoming a start-up hub with more start-ups stepping into the market each year. Most start-ups have set their foot in the urban market.
India, a country that depends highly on agriculture for its economic growth. With 2/3rd of its population living in rural areas, it has now become a necessity to develop rural areas and solve problems that rural people are facing. With this idea of solving rural problems, many entrepreneurs came forward and started their ventures to help rural people. Let's take a look at start-ups that are on the mission to redefine rural India.
Niramai
Niramai is a deep tech start-up based in Bengaluru. Niramai addresses critical healthcare problems and provides automated solutions. Niramai uses machine intelligence software to help detect breast cancer in its early stages. There are several other benefits of automated solutions like cost-effectiveness, simplicity, and accuracy. Niramai’s solution works for women of all ages. Its solution is less painful and radiation-free. Their solution can also be used for large scale screening in both rural and semi-urban areas.
Maatritva
Maatritva is a Nasik based start-up founded by Pritish Agarwal, Garima Dosar, and Abhishek Verma in 2017. It is a mobile health platform that helps in screening and tracking women at high risk during pregnancy. Maatritva aims at enabling safe deliveries by using their mobile platform and minimizing complications in pregnant womens.
Chikitsak
Chikitsak is a Bangalore based healthcare startup founded by Milind Naik. It focuses on providing affordable primary healthcare check-ups to the rural population. It focuses on screening for non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.
Intello Labs
Intello Labs is a Bengaluru based start-up working on leveraging Artificial Intelligence, computer vision, and deep learning technologies to help farmers scale their production. It is among India's most awarded start-ups. They use technology to monitor the grade and quality of vegetables and fruits. They use crop images to inspect and provide recommendations based on crop grade and quality. Recommendation helps farmers to increase production and grow their businesses.
Gocoop
Gocoop is a Bengaluru based start-up founded by Siva Devireddy in 2005. Siva created an online marketplace that connects artists, weavers, cooperatives with the buyers. It helps the handloom workers, artisans, and handicraft cooperatives by allowing them to market their products online. The online marketplace helps rural people to reduce the cost with increased efficiency.
Rozgar Dhaba
Inspired by ChaiPoint, Vinod Pandey founded Rozgar Dhaba. They sell tea and refreshment. But they introduced a very innovative solution by providing employment opportunities. Rozgar Dhaba works as a center where people seeking job opportunities come and find the jobs relevant to them. So how does this ecosystem work? How a person selling tea can provide a job?
People willing to sell their products display their product information in the stall. Similarly, employers can put up their requirements. Rozgar Dhaba collects this information and connects people who seek job opportunities. This way, along with selling tea and refreshments, they also connect employers to job seekers.
Husk Power Systems
Founded by Manoj Sinha, this Bihar based start-up is working on providing electricity to thousands of rural people by implementing their innovative solutions. Manoj Sinha invented his tech to generate electric energy from the waste product of rice known as rice-husk.
EnCashea
Most urban areas have municipal corporations to look after the waste. Waste management services in urban areas are far better than in rural areas. Most wastes are dumped in empty plots.
EnCashea, founded by IIT alumni provides waste management solutions for rural areas. They provide pick-up facilities for waste in rural areas. They use this waste to make compost out of organic waste. Farmers can grow organic fruits and vegetables with this compost. This can help farmers serve organic food to the urban market. Experts say this will start a new wave in the start-up world as this is a completely new domain in the start-up world.
From healthcare to banking, education to employment, agriculture to e-commerce, more and more start-ups are coming each year. And with a vision of making India self-dependent, these startups are working closely with the government to solve rural problems. However, we haven't solved all the rural problems yet. Many new problems will arise in the coming years and we are pretty sure that entrepreneurs will step in to solve them. India is still in its developing phase, and start-ups will play a vital role in its development.
