Effective governance, sound public administration and inclusive growth are crucial to citizen well being. In India, these aspirations, however, are still a long way from reaching their desired mark despite multiple large-scale and grassroot interventions by governments, nonprofits and corporations over several decades. Governments at all levels – national, state and local – still aim for effective public service delivery and efficient operations. Land and property ownership remains contentious for large sections of society, and maintenance of land records needs disruptive technological interventions. Our legal system is overburdened with thousands of pending cases each day, as citizens often struggle to avail legal services in required time.
Internet and smartphone penetration have increased significantly in the last decade, and so have citizen expectations for better and effective solutions in quick time. Last decade has also seen steep growth in the number of startups solving for multiple diverse sectors in India – fintech, e-commerce, agritech, healthtech to name a few. However, local and large scale issues around governance, land rights and access to justice haven’t seen a lot of scalable tech-driven solutions from entrepreneurs. In the post Covid-19 world, as governments have identified the need for accountability, trustable information and increased pace of operations, the need for such solutions is paramount!
CIIE.CO and Omidyar Network India have partnered to create Citizen Innovation Lab, an year long program with the goal to fuel tech-driven entrepreneurship in the nascent sectors of Civic Tech, Property Rights Tech and Legal Tech. Through the Lab, we aim to build sector knowledge, activate regional ecosystems and incubate early stage startups solving for these sectors.
What can Civic Tech startups solve for?
Civic Tech includes technologies that enable citizens to engage with the government and/or among communities to drive civic participation in governance. It also includes technologies adopted by the governments to improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of public service delivery. In our report Catalyzing Civic Tech in India, released in 2019 in partnership with Village Capital and Omidyar Network India, we defined the sector, identified emerging subsectors and promising revenue models, and explored appropriate funding strategies for investors to consider.
Startup Examples: Civic Tech
Everything Civic, CitizenLab, Banyan Nation, ClearGov
What can Property Rights Tech startups solve for?
Mobile phone penetration, drones, advanced imaging technologies and interventions like blockchain have the capability of making it quicker, cheaper and more effective to map and administer property rights.
Startup Examples: Property Rights Tech
Transerve, CPROP, Zebi, HouseAfrica
What can Legal Tech startups solve for?
Startups building disruptive solutions to expedite justice delivery outside of the courtrooms have a crucial role in identifying the issues of physical access to courts, leverage technology to connect stakeholders across the justice delivery system, and discover solutions that are affordable, efficient, and help to bridge the trust deficit of clients wary of courts.
Startup Examples: Legal Tech
Legalkart, Luminance, Presolv360, Legisway
About Citizen Innovation Lab
Solving hard problems needs disruptive technology and determined entrepreneurs. The Citizen Innovation Lab is aimed at catalysing innovation and entrepreneurial interventions to address some of the biggest challenges faced by citizens in India.
The Lab undertakes building knowledge through in-depth research and expert consultations, engaging with schools of higher education, activating regional ecosystems and incubating ideas and early-stage startups. Over the next few months, we hope to evangelize and provide the necessary impetus to entrepreneurs in the growing sectors of Civic Tech, Property Rights Tech and Legal Tech.