Establishing a ‘digital agriculture ecosystem’ requires an enabling environment for innovation by farmers and agro-entrepreneurs. The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping societies around the world, in part by accelerating the digital revolution that was already underway at the beginning of the year. Now is the time to ensure that the revolution does not leave the world's weakest communities further behind. Agriculture plays a significant role in the economic sector. The automation in agriculture is the main concern and the emerging subject across the world. Increasing investment in technologies to help small-scale farmers will yield far-reaching benefits long after the pandemic has passed. The traditional methods which were used by the farmers, were not sufficient to fulfill these requirements. Thus, new automated methods should be invented & presented. These new methods can gratify the food requirements and provided employment opportunities to billions of people. Smart agriculture – whereby farmers use mobile phones and other digital technologies to access customized, actionable agricultural information in real time – could revolutionize how these communities secure and improve their livelihoods. Agriculture, especially, need a more rapid transformation so that they can get into mainstream economic contribution, sustain their livelihood, and scale their businesses quickly.

India’s Financial Inclusion journey has been phenomenal in the last decade. Reduction of poverty and addressing the challenges of ensuring sustainable income could become a key factor to achieve an inclusive society. Information and Communication Technology are providing access to unbanked population progressively and helping to bring them into the banking segment. Digital Technologies are driving usage and making a positive impact on livelihood of citizens. Through this challenge, we are discovering on what is achieved in Financial Inclusion so far and what next and how do we leverage and harness digital technologies to achieve an inclusive society. To achieve a financially inclusive society that is sustainable and promotes inclusive growth for all, we need to provide the citizens of the country with access to education, basic financial services, affordable healthcare & suitable way for upskilling and improving their talent.

Considering these two scenarios, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Hitachi India R&D are joining hands together to conduct a National innovation challenge among the Indian startups (DPIIT registered) with a primary motive to find out the best solution from the Indian startups for some of the prevalent challenges that Hitachi India listed out and is seeking the solutions.