You can totally dismiss this piece as a conspiracy theory. I will advise don’t. Everyone wins when citizens actually show interest in understanding where their policy comes from.
Many of my colleagues in the technology industry are ambitious, well meaning and have great plans to impact lives. But respect for on-ground realities, structures and due process is the difference between agritech of 2013 and 2023. We came in as an impatient lot. There was so much inefficiency, so many middlemen, so much data and potential. There was so much money waiting to be just picked up.
It should make everyone happy the way the agritech companies have pivoted, struggled but survived and created such a huge sector by not demolishing structures and realities but by working with them. I am still part of meetings where brilliant-on-paper ideas are discussed that will never see the light of the day because they will never work.
Some see aadhar has a great success and completely ignore the disruption it has brought. Some will cheer facial recognition as a great data generator but not see the hurry with which half baked, non-transparent tech like digi yatra is being implemented.
There are many similar players in agriculture who just want to push a technology or a field trial. They believe convincing a few secretaries and onboarding a few institutions is all it takes to push a new digital platform. Sadly, the bar has been set too low. Too many tech influencers believe they can bypass due process, a pilot, even a sandbox.
The governments have been too conservative when it comes to supporting tech in agriculture. I may dare say sometimes a little too much. But can we blame them? How can any nationwide tech platform be launched without consultations, trials and putting out findings?
Not every evangelist in a hurry is an angel.
