Smartpur, Nokia’s flagship CSR initiative, is a digital village ecosystem project aimed at integrating technology into the daily lives of communities living in remote villages across India. Smartpur is executed in partnership with Save the Children India and Digital Empowerment Foundation.

The project intends to empower and support local entrepreneurs through digital technology. Entrepreneurs are provided with facilities to make services across the pillars of Livelihood, Health, Education, Financial Inclusion, and Governance accessible at the village level through Smartpur centers. Beneficiaries of the project leverage digital tools to access livelihood opportunities and skill-based training programs, telemedicine services, education in technology and computer literacy, financial services such as banking, and government schemes and services.

The project was first implemented in 2017 with 10 Smartpur centers established in the state of Haryana. The number of centers has since grown to 350 in 2023, established in 10 states across India. Between 2017 and 2022, 40 centers have been exited sustainably. These centers continue to provide the intended services to rural communities and generate a livelihood for the entrepreneurs.

The project has created large-scale social impact – it reached over million beneficiaries. Between April 2022 and March 2023 alone, the project reached over 835,100 beneficiaries. Approximately 480,000 people were supported with access and awareness on social protection schemes and services; over 26,900 people sought digital literacy training, career counselling camps and academic support; more than 297,500 people accessed financial literacy services such as conducting digital financial transactions, opening and operating banks accounts, and financial literacy; over 17,500 received telemedicine services and attended health awareness camps, and over 9,600 people were linked with livelihood opportunities, received vocational training, and trained on life skills.

https://smartpur.in/the-project/

• India

• Remote and rural communities

The Smartpur intervention model is designed to be sustainable in nature. A baseline assessment ensures that centers are established only in areas with particular need and liaison with local governments from the beginning of the project is established to ensure buy-in. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs are trained and provided with handholding support to equip them to manage the center independently. A revenue model is built into the project to cover the costs of running the center and enable a living wage for the entrepreneurs. A local governance committee is further constituted so that the community governs the functioning of the centers.

The Smartpur project has already been scaled and replicated successfully in locations across India. The project has been successfully scaled from one state, Haryana, to 10 states across India, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Jammu, Karnataka, and Haryana. These states are located across the south, central, north, and north-east of India. The project began in 2017, with 10 Smartpur centers in Haryana. In 2018, the number of centers were scaled to 20. In 2019, the total number of centers rose to 90, further increasing to 100 in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, the number of centers increased to 260 and 350 respectively.

Smartpur can not only be scaled as has been demonstrated but can be replicated in other contexts as well. The centers are designed to support communities by providing them with a one stop solution for their daily needs through the use of digital connectivity. It demonstrates the ability of technology to move across distances and bring services closer to beneficiaries while supporting them to understand and use digitally available services in a capable manner. Thus, the model can be brought to different locations.

The Smartpur project is implemented for the benefit of communities in need. The implementation process involves the identification of potential locations following consultations with key stakeholders, such as local governments. Locations are further finalized following a baseline and needs assessment that gauges the existing socio-economic and infrastructural conditions of each location across parameters relevant to the aims and objectives of the project. Following the baseline assessment, specific gender-disaggregated targets for various categories of beneficiaries, such as children and youth, are established based on their population in each location. Targets are established for each pillar of the Smartpur project, namely Health, Livelihood, Education, Financial Inclusion, and Governance. The project aims to reach marginalized and socio-economically underprivileged communities. Technologically driven infrastructure, such as mobile broadband internet connectivity and installation of network towers with a peer-to-peer network, and energy efficient infrastructure, such as solar panels are established in centers. Youth from local communities are trained to run and operate the centers – following their capacity development, they become Smartpur entrepreneurs, computer instructors, community mobilizers. Community mobilization camps are held to increase awareness and footfall concerning services offered by centers. Uptake of services by beneficiaries is closely recorded and monitored. Best practices in implementing the project are also identified and replicated as appropriate. Centers are established to be sustainable – centers’ progress vis-à-vis detailed exit rubrics consisting of indicators pertaining to financial and operational sustainability are monitored to assess the viability of centers becoming self-sustainable following Nokia’s exit. The progress of the project is reported on a fortnightly basis, while the impact of the project on target beneficiaries is assessed by an independent third-party.