About
Akodara demonstrates the Bank’s vision of transforming rural India by utilising technology as a catalyst for development, and in enabling local business opportunities, education and improving health & welfare.
Innovation presentation
The Government of India, through its ‘Digital India’ initiative, is focusing on leveraging the power of technology in many of its endeavours to improve governance, delivery of services to citizens and ease of doing business. In the spirit of our commitment to leverage technology for improving the lives of people and the Government’s ‘Digital India’ vision, we undertook a ‘Digital Village’ initiative in Akodara village in Gujarat.
This initiative is centred around 3Cs - a Cashless payment ecosystem; a Comprehensive approach spanning education & skill development; and making the village Connected through Wi-Fi.
As an outcome of this project, every adult in Akodara now has a bank account, can undertake cashless transactions in these accounts, has a much improved school infrastructure, a skill enhancement training options, a revamped healthcare centre and improved roads & connectivity.
Cashless transactions now contribute nearly 60% of the total transactions carried out in the village. The Village Level Cooperative Society (VLCS), which acts as a milk collection centre, has moved completely to a cashless payment mode for milk payments. A school management software and digitized attendance system have been installed in all 3 schools. These schools have started using smart boards in classrooms and other relevant equipments. Students are being trained at skill development centre. The Bank has conducted 2 health camps at e-Health facility setup at Akodara. Key commodity prices from nearby markets are displayed on a digital screen setup at the Bank’s branch. A dedicated website for Akodara (http://akodara-digitalvillage.in) is live.
Uniqueness of the project
We believe that this initiative is unique in many ways -
1. We have created a fully cashless, digital payment ecosystem across various points such as the village shops, at the mandi for sale of agri produce and at the cooperative society for sale of milk.
2. There is high speed broadband connectivity throughout the village through a wi-fi tower. We have put in place a terminal for display of prices of agricultural commodities. We have also created a website and Facebook page for the village. This shall enable a lot of stakeholders to connect with the village, and to replicate the infrastructure elsewhere.
3. This initiative is Comprehensive because it covers many areas: digitization of school records and implementation of a school management software; smart devices and boards in classrooms; audio-visual curriculum of the Gujarat Board in Gujarati language; video-based educational content for anganwadis; telemedicine; and skill development.
