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ACM CHI 2026 accepted Publication
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Insights from Farmer-Managed Decentralized Solar Irrigation Systems
Arnab Paul Choudhury, Rahul Rathod, Aryan Yadav
Solar irrigation systems are increasingly deployed in rural regions, yet their distributed and remote deployment makes maintenance challenging for farmers. While formal monitoring processes and applications exist, they often fall short in practice. We present insights from grid-connected solar irrigation schemes that incentivize farmers to feed energy to the grid, focusing on how farmers maintain their systems. We found that farmers face multiple challenges but are also devising strategies, including the appropriation of WhatsApp to share daily generation data with peers and compare performance across installations to identify potential system anomalies. Our findings highlight how messaging platforms function as informal digital infrastructures enabling collective sensemaking around distributed energy systems. We discuss implications for designing agricultural energy technologies that support peer comparison, contextual interpretation, and community-driven maintenance, framing these as a socio-technical platform. Finally, we outline directions for future work integrating such practices with formal monitoring tools and explore their potential to support citizen science initiatives in environmental sensing.
The work is published at CHI EA '26: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
DOI: 10.1145/3772363.3798971
IndiaAI Pre-Summit Event 2026
AI for Socio-Economic Development and Inclusive Livelihoods
AI for Socio-Economic Development and Inclusive Livelihoods
On the #RoadToImpact, the 'AI for Socio-Economic Development and Inclusive Livelihoods' pre-summit explored how artificial intelligence could transform agricultural productivity, fishery management, and rural livelihoods. Convened by Viksit Labs Foundation, the gathering united farmers, fishers, entrepreneurs, researchers, civil society organisations, academics, and government representatives to translate grassroots needs into safe, trusted, and actionable AI solutions.
Our collaborators include:
IEEE Local Group
Cachar College, Silchar, Assam
Our Supporters:
IIT Ropar, Awadh
NEADS Assam
Event Report: Link
Economic and Weekly Publication
Paper link without Paywall: Click here
The Case for Grid-Connected Solar Irrigation Pumps
Evidence from Gujarat’s Suryashakti Kisan Yojana
Evidence from Gujarat’s Suryashakti Kisan Yojana
Tushaar Shah, Arnab Paul Choudhury, Rahul Rathod, Gyan P Rai, Shilp Verma
India’s solar irrigation programme is going seriously astray. Off-grid solar pumps waste two-thirds of the energy they generate. Maharashtra’s solar agricultural feeders avoid energy waste but continue driving groundwater depletion through free power for irrigation. Gujarat’s innovative pilot, Suryashakti Kisan Yojana, has net-metered 4,300 solarised tube wells and now purchases farmers’ surplus solar power under a 25-year guarantee. We present unassailable statistical evidence revealing SKY’s significant behavioural impacts. Scaling out a revamped SKY can not only phase out power subsidies but launch a frontal attack on India’s pernicious energy–water–food nexus.
The work is published at Economic and Political Weekly
Geo-Innovation Challenge 2025
The Geo Innovation Challenge aims to recognize, encourage, and nurture innovation among the youth of our nation. It serves as a platform for ideas that could evolve into full proposals, potentially receiving support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, in the future.
Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Using Geospatial Innovation
Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Using Geospatial Innovation
Dates: 6th - 8th February 2025
Event Link: https://www.geoinnovation.viksitlabs.in
Location: NIT Silchar
Collaborators:
Supported By:
Supporting Rural Entrepreneurs in Meghalaya
Input Standardization and Recipe Development
Input Standardization and Recipe Development
Under this program, Viksit Labs is providing technical inputs to standardize the food products of rural entrepreneurs identified by the Govt. of Meghalaya. As a start, this includes input standardization as well as recipe development of food products with the ultimate goal of creating high-value, low-volume products that can augment the livelihood of rural entrepreneurs living in remote rural parts of Meghalaya.
Our collaborators include:
Prime Meghalaya, an initiative by the Govt. of Meghalaya
Prime Sauramandala Rural Entrepreneurship Fellowship (PSREF)
Supporting Skill Development initiatives
Using privacy-preserved object-detection technology to ensure better learning outcomes
Identifying bottlenecks and challenges faced in counseling, mobilization, and training by the college authorities and stakeholders
Improving service delivery of Skill Development at Dhamtari's Livelihood College in Chhattisgarh
Improving service delivery of Skill Development at Dhamtari's Livelihood College in Chhattisgarh
Under this initiative, Viksit Labs has worked to improve the service delivery of skill training in Dhamtari's Livelihood College. A part of the work done in the Livelihood College and some interesting findings have been accepted for presentation as a Poster and lightning talk in ACM's Computing for Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) conference, 2024, July 8-11. A full paper is accepted in IndiaHCI conference and published in Springer CCIS. Full paper link.
*This work is done in collaboration with fellows from the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship, MSDE, and with support from Dhamtari's District Skill Development Authority (DSDA, Dhamtari)
Archived Projects
Archived Projects
Krishinet
Managed services for LoRa Rural IoT network
Managed services for LoRa Rural IoT network
The project enables a low-cost community-run IoT network that can be used for various applications in areas including agriculture, disaster management, supply chain and many more.
LoRa network implementation at Turiya, a village next to Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh, India. The network is used for collecting agricultural parameters which are then used to provide insights to local farmers.
Sensor device 1
Sensor device 2
Sensor device 3
Gateway device (Receiver)
Sensor device 2
Sensor device 2
Sensor device 3
Farmer collects information using application
FPO-Saathi
End-to-End support to Farmer Producer Orgs.
End-to-End support to Farmer Producer Orgs.
FPO-saathi was initially developed to support executives, members, and board members of FPOs in tackling compliance challenges by nudging them to take appropriate action to remain compliant and avoid paying hefty fines using an easy-to-use mobile application. This has now been improved upon and currently, the project provides end-to-end support to FPOs in every aspect of the value chain.
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