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Technology Based Social Entrepreneurship: Innovations That Matter

Dr. Biplav SrivastavaIBM Research, Nov 2017

Panel on “Technology Startups: Disrupting the growth curve”At 5th Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS), New Delhi; https://gccs2017.in/

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Useful Innovations are Good Business

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Source: http://blog.simplylearnt.com/2014/09/have-you-read-gandhijis-talisman-in-ncert-books.html

How many innovationsfrom startups touch on poorest and weakest of India citizens’ basic needs and have hundreds of millions of active users?

• Air• Water• Food• Safety• Health• Education

Not many (when what we need are billions) !

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India and Its Technology-Based Social Trends

Strengths§ People: 1.3 billion§ Mobiles in people’s hands: 1 billion [1]§ Youths with a willingness to break

unproductive legacy

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Opportunities§ Plenty of problems§ Growing availability of data

Source: 1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2016/01/06/india-just-crossed-1-billion-mobile-subscribers-milestone-and-the-excitements-just-beginning/2. SAFAR-AIR app: http://safar.tropmet.res.in3. Mandi Trades apphttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manditrades&hl=en4. Travel Khana: https://www.travelkhana.com/5. Humsafar app and paper: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7913204/

Public discussions moving to data-based decision making

• Air: AQI numbers from SAFAR-AIR app used in public! [2]

• Water: • Food: Mandi Trades app [3], Travel

Khana for food delivery on trains [4]• Safety: Humsafar app [5]• Health:• Education: • …

But none with hundreds of millions of users

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Call for Action

A Small Effort – Blue WaterEngagingPeopleonWaterwithDataandAI

§ Chatbot (Water Advisor) and apps (Water Watch/ Ganga Watch) to help people take decisions involving water

§ Middle ware to manage contributed and open data

§ Sharing resources for others to build on –data, regulations, code

§ Analytical use-cases where technology (analytics from data) can help like Tourism (Ardh-Khumbh 2016; Kanpur pollution)

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Source: BlueWater -http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_group.php?id=6924

Focus Areas to Move to the Next Level Collectively

• Crowd sourcing: involving people socially

• As data sensors• Around managing problems

for timely intervention • Promoting open data within

government and businesses• Respecting data privacy• Implementing business models

to grow ecosystem• Promoting research for best-of-

breed ideas

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ThankYou!