Year: 2018 to ongoing
Funded by: Nokia
Smartpur, an initiative of DEF and Nokia is a rural entrepreneurship-based model designed to create ideal smart villages in India based on providing connectivity in hub-and-spoke model. As the concept, Smartpur integrates technology in its existing activities and processes, enabling the people of the community to make their lives better and contribute to the overall well-being of the village.
In a hub-and-spoke model, the wireless connectivity has been provided at hub centre connecting with spoke centres. Integration of digital component and connectivity, acts as a medium to acquire knowledge as a consumer and disseminate information as a producer, thus, serving as tool for empowerment innovation and communication for the larger community. This forms backbone of the Smartpur’s guiding principles.
Having this approach, DEF has established wireless connectivity in 100 hub-and-spoke centres in 10 districts of 7 states. Each hub centre in a village is connected with nine spoke centres providing connectivity to communities. This connectivity model has enabled Smartpur as a project to adopt a rural entrepreneurial-based approach under which the project seeks to create a social enterprise model driven by rural youth and supported by community members, government bodies, private institutions and other relevant stakeholders. These stakeholders will be trained and equipped with digital tools and knowledge resources required to build a strong pool of digital citizens spearheading and transforming the village ecosystem.
While rural entrepreneurs at the hub centers provide primary services under the six key areas of development—health, education, livelihood, governance, finance and entertainment—rural entrepreneurs at the spoke centers will further redistribute these services in their respective villages.