Why blockchain technology can be the game-changer for bolstering farming in India
Courtesy : Your Story
Why blockchain technology can be the game-changer for bolstering farming in India
Agritech companies are leveraging blockchain to build data-driven facilities that will make farmers smarter, more digitally savvy, and largely improve their quality of life.
With India being a predominantly agrarian economy, agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for approximately 58 percent of the country’s population, according to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). As one of the largest employers in the country, India’s agriculture sector is undoubtedly one of the most important.
However, unlike other industries, the agriculture industry has been relatively slow in the adoption of technology, although recent years have seen agritech players introduce tech-driven solutions to enhance yield, improve quality of life for farmers, and bolster farming in India.
The global COVID-19 pandemic proved to be devastating as food supply chains across the globe were disrupted due to movement restrictions and safety concerns.
Moreover, the crisis underscored the need for cutting-edge technologies in the sector to boost the resilience of food supply chains, besides contributing to improved efficiency in the production and distribution of crops. One of the key technologies that have the potential to fortify farming in India is blockchain.
Case for blockchain in agriculture
Agriculture is composed of many disparate segments e.g., seeds, crop nutrition, crop protection, farm equipment, credit, warehousing, transportation logistics, food processing, food preservation etc.
While the food goes through many different players on its journey from the farm to the food plate, there is a strong urge by consumers today to know what are they eating. Also, as supply chains have become longer, any user becomes more concerned about the origin and journey of the produce.
Blockchain is the only way that traceability can be brought reliably to farm produce with the distributed market architecture.
Data collection and processing
Agritech players are bringing in IoT devices and sensors, and blockchain technologies can be used to consolidate information on multiple aspects – the quality of the seed, tracking the crops, and the journey of the crops once they leave the farm up until they are sold in the market.
Besides enhancing transparency in the food supply chain, blockchain technology can also augment security by preventing unethical production and distribution of crops that undermine farmers’ lives.
From a consumer standpoint, blockchain’s data gathering will allow consumers to make informed decisions and may even enable them to contribute to the betterment of small-time farmers who are often in need of food and monetary security.
Once the data is collected, it needs to be structured and understandable before it can be saved. Blockchain technology helps add meta information to enrich the data and structure efficiently. Post this, it can be saved, making compliance enforcement more seamless. Data compliance ensures that the data collected is protected and adheres to security measures.
Transparency and reliability
With blockchain technology, the need for middlemen in the agriculture sector is eliminated. By alleviating the need for a central authority, blockchain helps restore and build trust between the producers and consumers. This can also help reduce costs in the market, making it more affordable with seamless functioning.
Offering a reliable approach to tracking transactions, blockchain dramatically improves security, and allows only verified transactions to take place. Agritech companies are leveraging blockchain to build data-driven facilities that will make farmers smarter, more digitally savvy, and largely improve their quality of life.
What can traditional banks learn from neobanks?
Neobanks are primarily tech-driven mobile-first banks. And, tech-savvy millennials in India and worldwide form a major part of their customer user base.
While physical transactions are at the core of the traditional banking ecosystems worldwide, neobanks can be accessed from your mobiles, tablets, or desktops.
This minimises operating costs and various expenditures related to people, property, resources, and management, making neobanks comparatively faster and cheaper. And allows them to reduce fees for their services and provide value-for-money to its customers.
With technology at its core, neobanks can personalise their services and customise offerings.
They provide a range of financial services, including digital transactions, money lending, money transfer, financial planning, expense management, budgeting, and savings tracker.
Customer is the King
The online platforms of traditional banks are quite outdated with old technology and do not provide a good user experience.
Neobanks — with their easy-to-use app, latest tech stack, and user-friendly design — provide 24/7 customer service with the help of AI-enabled chatbots.
With this advantage in their kitty, neobanks successfully target the millennials and teens, who are looking for digital solutions for their daily problems, banking being one of them.
Many solutions are coming up for teens below the age of 18, and these solutions are educating teens on financial freedom and money management.
Similarly, corporates are facilitated with innovative financial products on liquidity, mutual funds, and last but not the least, the new word in town – cryptocurrency.
Traditional banks are less customer-oriented and more into cash account generation. It takes three to five working days for account creation in a physical bank, and, in case of issues, the customer service at counters makes one wait for about two to three hours on call.
Contrary to that, creating an account in a neobank happens within 30 minutes on the mobile application. Further, these fintech startups put the customer on a pedestal and ask for constant feedback and personalisation needs.
Traditional banks need to start having a customer-first approach — new-age customer engagement and servicing technologies using pre-defined chatbots and issue resolution to have customers’ questions respond seamlessly as a generic guide.
In case any further resolution is required, in-demand customer support should be made available round the clock.
Modern technology
As neobanks are often startups that are lean, flexible, and fast, a major advantage of neobanks is that they have modern IT infrastructure, which allows them to adapt quickly and launch new products and services.
Most neobanks provide their core services as easy-to-deploy APIs and provide their customers with banking as a service.
Traditional banks in India spend around 2 percent of their annual revenue on technology, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers India. These banks need to scale up their technology spendings to at least 8 to 10 percent.
They need to replace their legacy IT infrastructure and adopt modern infrastructure, which will help them save up on the cost of physical infrastructure.
The cost advantage directly gets transferred to better customer services. Besides, this technological shift will result in smooth and up-to-date technical setups and rapid product launches in the future.
Banks should consider moving their digital infrastructure to the cloud to make use of cloud storage. It will enable personalisation for its customers and will optimise the engagement between the services and the customers.
Cloud migration will result in better security of client data, fewer errors and regulatory mishaps, and stronger customer relationships.
Transparency and advanced security
Security and transparency are two major concern areas in digital banking. The data security laws make it mandatory for fintech companies and neobanks to secure the details of their customers and prevent any unauthorised access to their accounts.
Besides, neobanks implement biometric verification, two-factor authorisation, encryption technology, and role-based access control to prevent ransomware attacks and frauds, making banking safe for customers.
In fact, neobanks are transparent with their customers as they provide real-time notifications of payments and transactions. They also inform about the extra charges and if any penalties are incurred by the customer in a particular situation.
Traditional banks ensure the security of their account holders by spreading awareness of common frauds and mistakes. Adopting the latest technology will optimise and monetise their database and data to make it safe and resistant to any kind of malware attacks and glitches.
The road ahead
In the last five years, the number of neobanks and digital banks has grown significantly globally. Today, there are over 100 neobanks worldwide. In fact, India has more than 10 neobanks active in the banking sector.
Given their existing customer base and quality of services, these neobanks will exponentially grow in the next five years in India.
Neobanks have changed the business model of traditional banking. But, these traditional banks have their own set of competitive advantages.
Most of the banking customers still maintain a high level of trust in their respective banks, which indicates there is still an opportunity for them to leverage their primary customer relationships and offer better services, mainly digital, through partnerships.
They should use them strategically and partner with the neobank startups to provide a seamless and efficient digital interface to their customers.
By implementing these lessons, traditional banks can find practical ways to improve their approach and working model, allowing them to leverage their strengths, adapt successfully to the new era, and, therefore, remain relevant in the world.
Innovate healthcare solutions with industry leaders at Optum Stratethon Season 3
Digitization is disrupting every sector and healthcare is no exception. With the rising need for innovative medical technologies, implementing solutions that transform healthcare has become a necessity. There is a lot at stake and organizations are trying their best to level up their game to revolutionize patient care.
The World Health Organization Health Innovation Group (WHIG) states that innovation ‘responds to unmet public health needs by creating new ways of thinking and learning’ and ‘aims to add value in the form of improved efficiency, effectiveness, quality, sustainability and/or affordability’.
Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group (UHG), a Fortune 5 company, is a leading digital health technology and product innovation company in the country. Optum is hosting Stratethon season 3 of their flagship health care technology and innovation competition for students – a platform to identify and incentivize thinkers who can provide simple, effective, and comprehensive solutions that benefit every individual, all while networking with industry leaders and peers.
Stratethon Season 3 is now open for students from business and engineering schools across India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.
View the complete competition structure details and register here
What to expect?
This platform brings together some of the brightest minds in these countries to solve healthcare challenges, where participants battle it out with each other to identify the most innovative solution that could help create a healthier world. Globally, UnitedHealth Group and Optum lead focused efforts to identify, address and monitor health disparities. In alignment with these efforts, Stratethon season 3 aims to build solutions that address health inequity.
The registrations for the Stratethon close on October 22, 2021 and the finale will be held on December 8, 2021. Within this duration, the participating teams will go through preliminary rounds, a wildcard round, executive summary submission rounds, virtual presentation, mentorship period and the grand finale.
The National Finale will be held virtually on December 8, 2021. The finalists will get a chance to present to the senior leadership team. Teams will be given 8 minutes to present, followed by 7 minutes of Q&A. Further details of the round will be disclosed closer to the event.
The need for innovation in the textile industry
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As per the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), globally, the fashion industry leaves a deep footprint on the environment. The statement is backed by some startling statistics. It requires 7,500 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans.
The clothing industry utilises 93,000 billion cubic metres of water annually, enough for 5 million people’s survival. It also accounts for 20 percent of the total water wasted worldwide. Producing clothing and footwear leads to 8 percent of GHGs (greenhouse gases). Each second, a quantity of textiles equal to a garbage truck is burned or buried.
No doubt, the era of fast fashion has led to an accelerated rise in these negative outcomes. Against this backdrop, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) issued a clarion call years earlier for a shift towards slow fashion or a sustainable clothing and textile industry.
Heavy ecological footprint
The WWF cautioned that the textile industry’s ecological footprint was simply not sustainable, with the sector emitting 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2 and producing 2.1 billion tonnes of waste per year. Worse, the sector needs many toxic chemicals, particularly during processing, often severely damaging the water basins, soil and local biodiversity.
Additionally, 2.1 billion tonnes of wastes are produced annually, such as off-cuts or disposed clothing, out of which only 20 percent are recycled. As per the global average, each person purchases 5 kg of clothes each year. In Europe and the US, however, the number runs as high as 16 kg.
Going by the above, there’s a clear-cut case for innovation in the textile industry to curb its carbon footprint. For the naysayers or those who believe this may not make much business sense, here’s some food for thought.
A Boston Consulting Group study shows that the profit margin of brands could drop by a minimum of three percentage points by 2030 because of rising costs of raw materials, energy and labour if companies continued with business as usual. The colossal loss in profits for the industry needs no elaboration.
Even for those willing to change, there is a message. The time for mere efficiencies and incremental changes is long over.
To meet the overwhelming challenges, the textile industry should undertake transformational changes at scale backed by broad innovations if mandated Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved by 2030.
Triple Models of Innovation
The WWF report highlights examples of industry frontrunners who are investing in innovations across process, product and business models. The first-movers are guiding the industry out of its linear ‘make-sell-dispose’ approach towards business models that are more circular and eco-friendly.
Business model innovations cover reduction, reuse, repair, recycling, and sharing. It transforms the way business is undertaken and value is generated by attempting to drastically limit the resources and material inputs required in the industry’s value chain and minimising the ecological impact of its activities. The new model adheres to the principles of sufficiency and a circular economy.
While the former follows reductionist strategies of producing/consuming less and slowing down, the circular economy aims at closed-loop models, repairing and a sharing economy.
Other innovations include ‘product as a service’ or the concept of renting clothes instead of selling and re-materialisation or sourcing of materials from recovered waste, among other innovations.
Examples of business model innovation include specialised recycling entities such as Tell-Tex and I:CO, which collaborate with companies to collect their clothing for recycling and reuse. Then there is cotton recycling or re-looping fashion, which denotes remanufacturing old cotton garments into new material while maintaining the quality of reproduced fibres. Thanks to the closed-loop value chain, the value of the material is maintained, waste eliminated and water consumption reduced.
Where product innovation is concerned, this comprises recycled content and more sustainable raw materials. This produces better products, e.g., through certified raw materials and manufacturing and recycled content.
An example of product innovation is Chetco or Chetna Coalition, which has set up and maintained market access for thousands of Indian farmers who produce Fairtrade cotton, which is organic. Then there is TENCEL®. This is a lyocell fibre from Lenzing that is extracted from wood. Due to its closed-loop system, fibre production itself remains eco-friendly.
Whereas process innovation includes transparency, renewable energy sourcing and other innovative processes. This leads to manufacturing processes having a reduced ecological trail, especially vis-à-vis energy, GHG emissions, chemicals and water.
Process innovation is exemplified by Nike’s ColorDry – a technology to dye fabric without water by using CO₂ in the dyeing process. This saves millions of litres of water in Nike’s supply chains. Companies such as Levi’s and Adidas are also promoting waterless dyeing. Then there is Patagonia’s Archroma Advanced Denim Technology.
An innovative dye process, it colours denim with sulphur dyestuffs that bond easily. Unlike conventional denim dyeing processes, this method results in shorter production lines needing 30 percent less energy and 84 percent less water while emitting 25 percent less CO2.
Finally, it is apparent companies can do a lot to make sustainable fashion a reality. But consumers can also contribute their mite in the common cause of slow fashion by reusing and renting garments.
Some big brands are already implementing programmes encouraging users to deliver travel clothing. In exchange, they receive bonuses or, in some cases, have new clothing made from their old pieces.
These merely represent the tip of the clothing industry’s global innovation drive. Undoubtedly, in the common cause of the planet’s survival, it’s high time that the people and industry players all join hands in promoting a sustainable textile industry.
Every startup is an AI startup: How to accelerate business growth with AI
Artificial intelligence is slowly becoming the norm for Indian startups that are working to innovate and solve problems, disrupting industry norms, in diverse areas ranging from dairy to defence.1 CLAP
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India is the world’s third-largest tech startup ecosystem which, despite the pandemic, continues to grow steadily at 8-10 percent annually, especially in the technology domain.
The deep tech startups’ base in India has expanded at over 40 percent CAGR over the past four years, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) accounting for two-thirds of all deep tech startups.
AI: An enabler of innovation and disruption
We are seeing Indian startups leverage AI to become the pole-bearers of innovation, solving problems, disrupting industry norms, or enhancing capabilities in diverse areas ranging from dairy to defence.
AI is the enabler, the tool, the means to create solutions; it is not always the end-goal. Every startup, irrespective of the domain it focuses on, leverages AI capabilities in some form or the other, and many of its business functions and operations are powered by AI capabilities.
Even if the end-solution is seemingly as “non-technical” as a Human Resource (HR) platform, it still has many components that leverage the power of AI, data, and analytics. When viewed in this light, it becomes evident that every startup is a tech startup, and, increasingly, an AI startup.
ALSO READHow Artificial Intelligence and ML infrastructure are transforming the digital marketing landscapeAI is now democratised, and increasingly, ubiquitous
There are many ways in which we, as consumers, use AI in our day-to-day activities without realising it – unlocking our phone with face ID; seeing our emails automatically categorised; receiving content suggestions on websites; navigating while driving; converting speech to text in the form of subtitles or transcripts; interacting with chatbots and smart personal assistants, and more.
AI is now ubiquitous, and indeed democratised, such that every startup needs to use AI at the heart of its technology stack to offer its customers the experience they have come to expect.
AI helps startups discover information, learn from data, and drive intelligent decisions. It makes operations more efficient; enhances product and service innovation; and enables higher employee effectiveness and creativity.
A three-pronged approach
We believe that the approach of any organisation to AI, including startups, should be based on three key pillars: meaningful innovation; empowering people; and responsibility.
Innovation with agility, at scale
Innovation can be greatly accelerated with AI capabilities that are on par with those of humans in areas such as object recognition, speech recognition, reading comprehension, and language translation.
Empowering everyone
AI capabilities are no longer restricted to data scientists, but rather accessible by all skill levels. Citizen developers to bot designers, application developers to engineers with no-code or code-first experiences can leverage cognitive services, knowledge mining and machine learning capabilities today to develop AI-powered applications and solutions.
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