Challenge:

The location is Gujarat, India. The incoming Covid-19 has put a lot of stress on the poor and  under-privileged with a direct fight for survival due to lack of essential commodities. This was  partly due to the fact that the PDS employed by the government was not able to provide the  grains due to lack of supply chain inefficiency. The availability and affordability of essential  commodities were duly affected with more than 3568 families in need for the same.

Selection :

As mentioned in the Modules, the tool required to implement a pilot project after thorough  and regular investigation of data along with brainstorming of various ideas prior to going with  the final pilot scheme/project. This was essential to actually see the thoughts and ideas  developed over the situation to be implemented and bring in required benefits. The reason to  select this was due to lots of previous research and data collected over the period that allowed  us to go for he pilot project implementation

Application :

The design thinking tool selected was the Learning Launch that helped to implement a pilot  scheme of local distribution of food grains that were actually sourced from the local farmers.  This clearly eliminated the undue expenses and the procurement hassle that was present  before. The procurement and distribution also proved to be high beneficial for all the  stakeholders involved with pure engagement and visual confirmation of the needs and  demands of the people who were incurring losses and pains. The cost was borne initially for the  procurement of grains by the Social Self-Help-Group but later succeeded to become self-reliant  and sufficient to prosper automatically.

Indights:

Lots of further insights were indeed available once we implemented the project. Various  challenges ranging from transportation, cost optimization and improving the reach out to  remote communities for the program were entertained. These required us to regularly collect  bits and pieces of information from various officials and the field workers involved. Insights  generated were that rather than appointing outside personnel to monitor the whole activity, a  self-monitoring approach by the local communities was more favorable towards sustenance of  this model. This led to people having a control and feeling of being involved for themselves and  the benefits of others too. Moreover, regarding the costs and expenses, the elimination of long  distance transportation proved to be highly rewarding for farmers that saw a net 42% increase  in income generation that allowed them to produce more on a regular basis.

Approach :

The alternative approach to this situation was to take the help of the local wholesalers and the  employment of warehousing facilities to store and procure the grains. This was rather difficult  to implement due to the heavy costs and supply-demand mismatch due to information gap  present in the communication channels and the medium.

