Raghu Kanchustambham graduated from IIT-Guwahati in 2000 with the intention of making the best use of his world-class education. Little did he know that a chance accident was going to point him in an opposite direction, one that was destined to bring this Hyderabadi worldwide acclaim.
Currently, he is preparing to fly to Oslo, Norway, in October to participate in the two-day Digital Winners conference. Raghu will compete in ‘The Best App in Asia’ category, where his innovation has been selected to represent India.
“My app ‘Livelihood 360’ has been selected for the conference, which is all about creating a platform to invite top-notch entrepreneurs to meet corporate innovators,” says Raghu, adding, “Livelihood 360 at present is being used by 12,000 tribal farmers in 650 villages across Araku Valley region. The app is a rural Enterprise Resource Planning platform and the basic idea is to focus on speedy tracking of information. Every farmer is given a unique farmer code, one that contains the yield estimate, actual crop produced, how much the farmer needs to be paid, etc.”
Usually, it takes close to 30 days for a farmer to collect his payment after the produce has been picked up by the ‘truck drivers’ from his farm. The payment, too, is usually collected from a head office located in different villages. “With this app, they can collect the payment on the spot from the ‘truck drivers’, who can get the estimate through the app. The app costs '2 per month,” he says.
The app was declared a winner at the NASSCOM Social Innovation Honors 2013 as well as the Vodafone International Congress 2012. It even made it to top 3 at the Manthan Award South Asia and Asia Pacific 2012.
Raghu also works with Naandi Foundation, which looks after the basic education of underprivileged children.
