Jan 27 Notes
- Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed)
- Eric Firnhaber (Unlicensed)
Attendees: @Vineet Singh @Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed) @Razak K M @Kunal Tiwari (Unlicensed)
Agenda:
What do we want to get done over the coming month to move DFN forward? What are the roles and responsibilities?
Notes / Takeaways
What do we want to do in Feb?
1) Continue to flesh out the entry points through consultation with subject matter experts. This is our critical path item for the coming weeks
While there is excitement around the finance angle, ability to execute and burden of debt on farmer groups is a real concern. Need to research more on grants / philanthropic capital esp things like ixo
On the FPO financing front, Ashu has meetings lined up w CEO of Dvara E-Registry (Sanjay) Caspian (Emmanuel Muarry) Yunus Social Business (Deep who setup their FPO lending practice) during the week of Jan 31. Right now lots of potential options on the table; loans for working capital, loans equipment purchases, grants for implementing adaptation programs, etc. Need to whittle this down
Flesh out the “social media” entry point further (Ashu)
Setup meeting with company that launched an Edtech bond on ixo. Research on other potential entry points (Vineet)
2) Present high conviction entry points to at least [5] FPOs. We want feedback on which entry point is most promising and want to secure interest from at least [3] FPOs to co-create and pilot something with us over the next six months.
Kunal is to develop the agenda and handle logistics (who are we meeting with, where, when, etc.). We can look to the recent FPO workshop for a model here; should have representation from FPO leadership/ BOD and supporting resource institutions. In addition to the FPOs who are using KDE, we can connect with SEWA, APMAS, etc.
Ashu and Vineet to flesh out the entry points. Need a simple explanation of each so we can get feedback
Also present the concept to NABARD and SFAC for higher level buy-in. Kunal to arrange meetings and Ashu to work with @Eric Firnhaber (Unlicensed) on the one-pager / concept note. Latest draft of the concept note here.
3) Continue to execute our existing (and on-deck) projects; they may not be directly in line with the entry point we ultimately select but we will learn, esp about the data wallet / consent manager / presenting collected data back to farmers.
Specifically, what we expect to happen in Feb:
FRAME: Develop and share kharif scorecards for all participating farmers use feedback (from farmers and JEEViKA) to figure out what we do with this going forward (Lokesh and Stuti). And mapping land boundaries
Tara and E-Mircha: [@Vineet Singh to detail]
Ag data exchange use case: [ @Kunal Tiwari (Unlicensed) to detail]
Where are we headed?
Develop a high level roadmap and budget by mid March so we have something in place going into the new fiscal year.
We may not get there exactly but should at least be able to put some bounds around this research phase and some illustrative numbers
Other
There is a heavy coordination and project management component here; we need a project manager to keep tabs on whats happening. Need to provide transparency to the whole group on where we are and ensure accountability (eg, we committed to do xyz by a certain date, did it happen or not, what is the resolution, etc)
Sounds like Kunal has a promising candidate who is meeting w Krish next week
Ideally, we can track this all via JIRA tickets but lets start by getting some handle on whats going on, and have someone on point for meeting agendas and notes, chase down on followups, etc.