With the Road to GES: Beyond Boundaries (read more here) event coming up on 26-27th November (just a day more!), we couldn’t be more excited! We are proud to have some amazing partners working together with us to make the Road to GES a huge success. Today, we have one of them, Accenture Labs, in conversation with us about their upcoming collaboration with INK.
Accenture will also have Sanjay Podder (Eisenhower Fellow and MD, Accenture Labs India) from their side, participating as a speaker.
Q.1. What are you looking forward to at the Road to GES?
At Accenture Labs, we are looking forward to showcasing our Tech4Good program. Road to GES provides us with a great platform to connect with the larger Tech4Good community and know how social enterprises are making a difference with emerging technologies.
The program is helping us challenge the norm every day by developing technology solutions that can enable social entrepreneurs, startups and nonprofits to accelerate social change. After all, in a world where benefits of digital technologies are challenged, our Tech4good program is the best possible response we could bring on the positive impact of the digital revolution on the society.
We are looking forward to showcasing our work in the Tech4Good space. For example, how we are harnessing Artificial Neural Networks to create biodiversity awareness for the Bombay Natural History Society; our work with the Child in Need Institute to use mobile, analytics and cloud technologies for preventing girl child trafficking; and how we are co-innovating with the National Association for Blind India to develop DRISHTI, a guided assistive solution leveraging latest AI technologies.
Q.2 Give us a picture of what Accenture Labs is doing with The Akshaya Patra Foundation for ‘Tech for Good.’
Our “Million Meals” project with the Akshaya Patra Foundation used exponential technologies to increase the number of meals served to children in schools in India that are run and aided by the government. Akshaya Patra, which means the “inexhaustible vessel” in the Hindi language, is the world’s largest NGO-run Mid-Day Meal Program. It’s a reality that every year billions are spent to combat malnutrition, yet every day 3,000 children in India die due to hunger. Now, imagine an inexhaustible vessel of food that uses innovative technologies like Blockchain to ensure that no child is deprived of education because of hunger. With this collaboration with Accenture, Akshaya Patra is currently feeding 1.6 million children in more 13,000 schools in India.
Accenture Labs has worked with Akshaya Patra to collect feedback from schools by using blockchain and sensor-enabled devices to help them move from a manual to a digital feedback mechanism. Our solution is helping Akshaya Patra track food delivery and the timeliness of food delivered to schools on mobile devices. In addition, the solution uses the power of AI to predict the next day’s meal requirements. Another advantage for Akshaya Patra has been the ability to ensure optimum energy consumption and consistent food quality, made possible by IoT sensors. This project has not only aided Akshaya Patra in tracking kitchen performance but also provided accurate, real-time data to identify trends, make informed decisions and save valuable time and effort.
Q.2 What is the long-term vision of Accenture Labs? Give us a sneak preview of your talk on the Road to GES stage.
Accenture Labs is a part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture that uses an innovation-led approach to help clients develop and deliver disruptive innovations, and to scale them faster. As we drive innovation to improve the way the world works and lives, we believe in the power of technology innovation to deliver and scale transformational sustainable impact for a new digital world.
Our speaker, Sanjay Podder’s Road to GES talk will focus on how Accenture, with its Tech4Good program, is harnessing emerging technologies such as such as AI, genomics and blockchain to deliver social good. The use of digital technologies for solving humanity’s most pressing challenges, we believe, is especially relevant at a time when the growth in world population will make building a more inclusive and sustainable world even more challenging.
Q.3 Tell us how you connect with the start-up ecosystem in India and how they can bolster you?
Accenture Labs is a part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture that uses an innovation-led approach to help clients develop and deliver disruptive innovations, and to scale them faster. As we drive innovation to improve the way the world works and lives, we believe in the power of technology innovation to deliver and scale transformational sustainable impact for a new digital world.
The Labs engages with startups, social innovators and entrepreneurs by mentoring and working with them to create innovative solutions for the industry and society. For example, we are working with associations like NASSCOM IoT and the 10K warehouse start up that bring the start-up community together. We are also mentors to the Ashoka Tech globalizer, NASSCOM – tech advisor (NASSCOM IoT CoE, social and enterprise space).
Q.4. How do you think the INK-Accenture collaboration can encourage emerging technologies and help India move into an innovative future?
INK and Accenture share a common vision—of going “Beyond Boundaries.” At Accenture Labs, we are going Beyond Boundaries by using innovative technologies such as AI, big data, blockchain, cybersecurity and IoT to build a more inclusive and sustainable world while INK, in the past and this year, has featured visionaries who are working toward changing the world by challenging the norm through greater innovation.
As we make these significant strides together I believe the transformative exchange of ideas at the Road to GES will go a long way in helping India move into an innovative future.
