projects

Driving Digital Transformation in Public Service Delivery

Empowering 120,000+ Anganwadi Workers Through Vernacular E-Learning

An initiative led by Srichandra, Founder – Sakcharon Consulting LLP

Before founding Sakcharon Consulting LLP, Srichandra played a pivotal role in one of Karnataka’s most progressive digital public sector transformations — a Learning Management System (LMS) created for frontline workers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD).

Faced with long-standing skill gaps and disruptions due to COVID-19, this initiative reimagined capacity building for Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), helpers, and supervisors. The LMS delivers app-based, multilingual, and self-paced learning, enabling field workers to access knowledge in their local language — a first of its kind in the department.

“Digital doesn’t have to mean impersonal. When it speaks your language, solves your day-to-day challenges, and respects your time — transformation begins.”

Grassroots-Led, District-Tested

To ensure relevance and adoption, Srichandra personally travelled across key districts — including Chamarajnagar, Mandya, Kalburgi, Belagavi, Bidar, and Chikkaballapur — engaging directly with supervisors, CDPOs, Deputy Directors, and frontline AWWs to identify training needs, content preferences, and digital literacy gaps.

Workshops trained over 900 government staff, not just in how to use the LMS, but how to create email IDs, access digital tools, and build comfort with smartphones and computers — setting the foundation for lifelong learning.

From Learners to Creators

A standout outcome: Anganwadi workers and supervisors began expressing interest in creating their own videos — capturing local best practices and community learnings. This user-generated content is not only enriching the LMS but fostering a sense of ownership and pride among the learners.

A Strategic Tool for the Department

The platform has quickly evolved beyond training — Joint Directors and Directors from the department are now exploring how to use the LMS to:

Conduct topic-specific assessments
Identify knowledge gaps across geographies
Roll out targeted modules on POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment), ethics, child rights, and compliance

With backend dashboards and real-time monitoring, the LMS provides actionable insights — making capacity building more data-driven and need-responsive than ever before.

The Road Ahead

With support from Infosys Springboard, Makkala Jagriti, and Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH), this initiative now has the potential to reach 120,000+ field functionaries and impact over 4 million beneficiaries statewide.

It stands today as a scalable, sector-agnostic solution — a digital infrastructure that other departments can adopt to improve last-mile service delivery.

Leveraging Tech for Social Impact: Insights from a Statewide Child Protection Digitization Effort

A Policy-Tech Breakthrough Led by Srichandra, Founder – Sakcharon Consulting LLP

Prior to founding Sakcharon Consulting LLP, our founder worked directly with the Government of Karnataka as part of the Indian Administrative Fellowship, supporting strategic reforms in child protection systems. One of the key assignments involved helping conceptualize and initiate a digital case management solution to strengthen the government’s approach to monitoring and addressing child marriage.

The Challenge

At the time, state mechanisms to address child marriage were fragmented — relying on uncoordinated manual records from helplines, local officers, schools, and police departments. This often led to:

Missed or duplicate case reporting
Delayed action and poor follow-up
Inconsistent inter-departmental data flow
Low system adoption due to infrastructure and training gaps

The Approach

Working closely with senior bureaucrats and technical partners, our founder helped shape a policy-tech roadmap that emphasized:

Unified digital case tracking across departments
Mobile tools for field-level staff to enable real-time updates
Secure, role-based system access from district to village level
Multilingual support for ease of use across geographies
A citizen interface for community-based reporting
Dashboard-driven analytics aligned with national standards
Proposed data integrations with health and education departments for long-term risk detection

Role & Contribution

During the fellowship, our founder:

Conducted field evaluations and process mapping
Authored system requirement documents based on user needs
Supported inter-agency coordination and vendor onboarding
Navigated regulatory and procurement processes to facilitate implementation funding
Ensured that digital design aligned with ground realities and policy objectives

How This Informs Our Work Today

At Sakcharon Consulting LLP, this experience shapes our belief that technology must be human-centric and policy-aware. We apply these learnings to help organizations — both public and private — build scalable, context-driven solutions that improve operational efficiency and social impact.

“True systems change happens when policy, technology, and field realities converge. That’s the space we thrive in.”

Strengthening Child Protection Systems: Insights from a Statewide Digital Reform Initiative

Led by Srichandra, Founder – Sakcharon Consulting LLP

Karnataka

During a prior engagement as a fellow with the Government of Karnataka, our founder had the opportunity to contribute to the early design and strategy phase of a statewide initiative aimed at digitally strengthening child protection services. The initiative sought to improve how vulnerable children are tracked and supported by enhancing coordination, visibility, and responsiveness across institutions involved in child welfare.

The Context

Despite a strong legal framework for child protection, frontline systems often struggled with fragmented, paper-based processes and disconnected digital tools. Critical services — from helpline responses to case follow-ups at Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Child Care Institutions (CCIs), and District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) — lacked real-time data sharing, common protocols, and effective oversight mechanisms.

These challenges led to delays in intervention, duplication of efforts, and gaps in monitoring and planning.

The Initiative

The reform effort envisioned a unified digital platform to serve as a single window for all key actors in the child protection ecosystem. It aimed to:

Enable real-time case tracking across CWCs, CCIs, helplines, and DCPUs
Provide a centralized view of institutional capacities to guide placements
Support digitization of legacy case files and streamline workflows
Introduce dashboards and analytics to inform data-driven decision-making
Set the foundation for future interoperability with related systems (e.g., child marriage, trafficking, health)

Strategic Inputs Provided

As part of the early planning team, our founder contributed to the development of:

Field assessments across multiple districts to map operational pain points
Technical and operational frameworks for platform design
Executive proposals and blueprints for conceptual approval
Roadmaps for implementation support and governance structures

The groundwork laid during this phase helped align field realities with institutional priorities — ensuring that any future digital platform would be rooted in the needs of both children and the professionals tasked with their protection.

Looking Ahead

The proposed system, once fully developed and implemented, is expected to enhance service delivery for thousands of children and bring greater transparency to how resources are allocated across the child protection landscape. The design also anticipates future integration with related data ecosystems, creating opportunities for predictive insights and preventive action.

Improving Maternal Health Outcomes Through Technology: A Digital Innovation Pilot in Karnataka

Led by Srichandra, Founder – Sakcharon Consulting LLP

Before founding Sakcharon Consulting LLP, our founder supported a transformative initiative with the Government of Karnataka to enhance maternal healthcare services using digital tools and AI-driven insights. This work focused on addressing long-standing gaps in maternal health data systems, with the aim of improving monitoring, decision-making, and service delivery across the continuum of care — from early pregnancy to postnatal support.

The Context

Despite progress in maternal health indicators, challenges remained in delivering consistent, timely care to women across Karnataka, especially during high-risk pregnancies and critical delivery phases. Key issues included:

Fragmented and delayed data entry from the field
Limited tools to track high-risk pregnancies or intrapartum events in real time
A lack of tailored digital solutions suited to Karnataka’s needs
Manual workflows leading to under-reporting and missed interventions

The Initiative

To respond to these challenges, a pilot project was conceptualized to create a digital maternal health platform equipped with modern features such as:

AI-enabled dashboards and analytics to support evidence-based decision-making
A conversational assistant to help frontline health workers access key protocols and guidelines
Real-time intrapartum monitoring via digital partographs
Tools for tracking high-risk pregnancies and migratory beneficiaries using health IDs
Integration with Bluetooth-enabled devices to minimize data entry burden and improve accuracy
Features supporting labor room staffing optimization and referral follow-up

The solution was designed with scalability in mind, and the pilot was scoped for two districts in northern Karnataka.

Strategic Inputs Provided

As part of the fellowship with the state government, our founder contributed to the initiative’s early planning and development through:

Conducting needs assessments to identify critical system gaps
Co-developing functional requirements for a digital platform tailored to local field realities
Facilitating partnerships with health and technology experts to align on scalable architecture
Supporting design of pilot protocols and operational workflows for rollout

These contributions helped bridge the divide between healthcare delivery realities and the promise of digital innovation in maternal care.

What’s Next

The platform is now under consideration for wider implementation across the state, following initial testing, By offering interoperable architecture and open-source flexibility, the solution also holds potential to benefit other states seeking to improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes.

Empowering Anganwadi Workers with Health and Insurance Benefits

Led by Srichandra, Founder – Sakcharon Consulting LLP

In a landmark initiative aimed at improving health and insurance coverage for Anganwadi workers and helpers, Karnataka has launched a project designed to boost the adoption of PMJBY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana), PMBSY (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana), and ABARK (Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka) schemes. This project, led by Srichandra, founder of Sakcharon Consulting LLP, aims to bridge gaps in insurance access for some of the state’s most crucial frontline workers.

The Challenge

Anganwadi workers and helpers play a vital role in the state’s child welfare and nutrition programs. However, despite their contributions, many lack access to essential health and insurance schemes, leaving them vulnerable to financial distress. Key challenges identified include:

Limited awareness among Anganwadi staff about available schemes.
Inconsistent tracking and enrollment in health and insurance programs.
Data capture discrepancies, leading to gaps in program coverage.

The Solution: Expanding Health and Insurance Coverage

This project seeks to ensure that PMJBY, PMBSY, and ABARK are accessible to all Anganwadi workers and helpers across Karnataka. Initially focused on identifying staff without access, the approach has evolved into a phased strategy, prioritizing outreach and enrollment through the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) offices.

Key elements of the initiative include:

Systematic approach to identifying Anganwadi workers and helpers without access to insurance schemes.
Standardized enrollment tracking and data capture formats to improve reporting accuracy.
Follow-ups and data collection to ensure comprehensive tracking of adoption rates.
Revamped data formats to address discrepancies and improve the accuracy of enrollment data.

Key Impact and Achievements

Since the inception of this initiative:

Increased awareness about health and insurance schemes among Anganwadi workers and helpers.
Improved enrollment in PMJBY, PMBSY, and ABARK, with a noticeable uptick in the adoption of the ABARK scheme.
Standardized reporting formats to ensure consistent and accurate data collection, streamlining the enrollment process.
While there is significant progress, challenges remain in achieving 100% accurate data capture, necessitating continued efforts for further refinement and follow-up.

Strategic Contributions by Srichandra

Srichandra, in collaboration with the Deputy Director of WCD and the WCD team, has spearheaded the coordination and tracking efforts. The fellow’s contributions include:

Designing and refining the data collection process to standardize reporting formats and minimize discrepancies.
Collaborating with WCD offices to promote scheme adoption and enrollment.
Leading efforts to identify gaps and revise strategies for more effective data tracking.

The Way Forward

Ongoing follow-ups to collect accurate and consistent data for all Anganwadi workers and helpers.
Continued refinement of data formats and reporting mechanisms to ensure comprehensive coverage and enrollment.
Further promotions to increase awareness and adoption rates, ensuring all Anganwadi staff benefit from these essential health and insurance schemes.

“This initiative is crucial for providing health security and financial protection to the dedicated Anganwadi workforce, ensuring they have the support they need in times of need.”

Advancing Public Health: Integrated Data-Driven Interventions

Led by Srichandra, Consultant – Health and Family Welfare Department

Before founding Sakcharon Consulting LLP, our founder supported the Government of Karnataka on critical health policy initiatives during their tenure as a public sector fellow. These efforts focused on leveraging data to design targeted responses to two systemic challenges: the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and inefficiencies in healthcare claims management. Both initiatives aimed to enhance social protection and healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations through better use of technology, interdepartmental coordination, and actionable insights.

1. Teenage Pregnancy: Mapping the Landscape for Informed Action

Teenage pregnancy remains a pressing concern in Karnataka, with over 12,000 reported cases. To address this, a collaborative effort was undertaken between the state’s Health and Family Welfare and Women & Child Development departments to:

Analyze existing health and child protection data to identify high-burden geographies
Develop evidence-based IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) strategies in consultation with grassroots partners
Support the proposal of a state-wide budget aimed at training and communication campaigns

This initiative received high-level endorsement and a sanctioned budget to scale IEC and training activities aimed at delaying early pregnancies and preventing child marriage. A roadmap was also developed for implementing the initiative through local self-governance institutions, including gram panchayats.

Strengthening Systems for Long-Term Impact

As part of ongoing policy discussions, the initiative also recommended:

Integrating relevant health and protection datasets (such as RCH and ICPS) to enable early identification and faster support for at-risk adolescents
Building convergence protocols across departments to improve coordination and streamline frontline responses

These efforts helped create a foundation for more targeted and data-driven programming in adolescent health and protection — with scalable potential for implementation across districts.

2: Leveraging AI for Smarter Insurance Claims: Enhancing Efficiency and Fraud Detection

In a separate initiative supported during their fellowship with the Government of Karnataka, the founder of Sakcharon Consulting LLP worked with the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) to explore the role of artificial intelligence in improving the efficiency and integrity of health insurance claims management.

Enhancing Claims Oversight with AI

With thousands of claims processed monthly under Karnataka’s health assurance programs, ensuring accuracy and minimizing fraud is a significant operational challenge. To support more intelligent and scalable management, the initiative focused on:

Designing and showcasing real-time dashboards to improve visibility into claims processing
Demonstrating AI-based anomaly detection tools capable of flagging potentially fraudulent patterns in billing or service utilization
Enhancing overall staff productivity by introducing digital tools that streamline claims review workflows

These tools, once fully operationalized, are expected to reduce manual effort, improve turnaround times, and enable more targeted fraud investigations.

Toward Scalable AI Deployment

Following initial proofs of concept and stakeholder discussions, the groundwork was laid for:

Piloting the AI-driven fraud detection system across selected hospitals and claims offices
Assessing impact on efficiency, claims accuracy, and cost containment
Developing a roadmap for potential scale-up based on pilot outcomes

This initiative reflects the increasing potential of AI and data analytics to solve real-world challenges in public service delivery, particularly in large-scale health insurance programs.

We create a consistent customer experience through a detailed digital strategy built on precise customer research.

Disclaimer:

The projects showcased here are based on work undertaken during a government fellowship and collaborations with various public and private organizations. Out of respect for confidentiality and ongoing partnerships, specific organizational names and departments have been withheld. I remain deeply grateful to all stakeholders government officials, institutional partners, and domain experts whose support made these initiatives possible.