Launched by the national Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), the ICT Grand Challenge aims to resolve the water scarcity issues in rural India. The challenge calls for creating innovative, modular, and cost-effective solutions for ‘Smart Water Supply Measurement and Monitoring’ that can be deployed at the village level. Till the

application deadline, which ended on 12th October 2020, the challenge saw a total of 213 proposal from various Indian Tech start-ups, MSMEs, Indian Companies, and Indian LLPs. The applications are subject to scrutiny by a jury committee appointed by MEITY.

The program is designed in a way that the Grand challenge will provide support at ideation Stage, prototype development stage, deployment stage. The pilot will be conducted in100 villages. The developer of the best solution will get cash prize of Rs. 50 Lakh and runner ups will get prize of Rs. 20 Lakh each. Furthermore, the selected successful developers will be given an opportunity to join the MeitYsupported incubator for further nurturing of the solution.

Launched Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2020, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is Union Government’s flagship program. The program also boasts its partnership with state governments for providing Functional Household Tapwater Connection (FHTC) to every rural household by 2024. According to the ministry, the program will go beyond merely creating infrastructure to focus on service delivery at the household level.

Since the aim is to ensure regular water supply in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality, on long-term basis, the use of modern technology in systematic monitoring of the program and to capture service delivery data automatically for ensuring the quality of services will be crucial.