Chhattisgarh was ranked the lowest in India in mobile ownership among rural households (29% against national average of 68%), largely attributed to geographical and demographic constraints leaving large swathes of people out of the economic mainstream. SKY is an innovative strategy for digital, financial, and social inclusion. It ensured private investment by telcos while distributing 5m smartphones to women in rural households at a cost of ~$200m.
Results Achieved:
• 90% Households will have access to network and smartphones
• 2100 network Dark Villages will be lit up, 875 villages have been covered with overall 15200 villages with 4G Connectivity
• 2.5 m beneficiaries have received smartphones in 2018 against 4.5 m Women beneficiaries planned, propagating gender equality
• 500K student beneficiaries will have access to e-learning and quality education
• Dedicated call centers were set up before, during and post roll out of Project
Impact generated:
a. Growth from current GSDP of $40b by 3%, translating to $1.2b.
b. Economic: Access to financial services even in remote areas (financial inclusion)
c. Social: improvements in health and education indicators
d. Digital: Access to government services, other internet based services (126 citizen services have already become operational)
e. Quality of Life: Access to information, news, entertainment

https://sky.cgstate.gov.in/CGSKY/

• State of Chhattisgarh, India

• Youth
• Women
• The poor
• Remote and rural communities
• Third Gender, Self Help Groups, Lawyers

SKY is an innovative initiative wherein the government and private parties joined hands to meet a common goal of enabling an environment of growth and development by adopting the Public Private Partnership model by making an investment and facilitating private parties to build infrastructure. The project entails government providing a single window for security, land and right of way to enable private party build telecom infrastructure. The government at its own cost provides smartphones to the intended beneficiaries to bridge the economical divide and thereby facilitating mobile penetration and telecom coverage. This also entails providing free data services to the beneficiaries for a limited time so as to facilitate this transition.
The project provides a solution to overcome challenges where market forces are not addressing the local needs for access to mobile/digital/internet services.
It is replicable across all geographies with difficult external factors, internal threats or where investment is a constraint. This project can be implemented by initially identifying under developed areas that lack ICT and by involving region specific telecom service operators/OEMs backed by strong government policies.

SKY Project offers long term solution to address the needs of underprivileged people focusing on eradication of poverty, reduce inequality and women empowerment by providing accessibility to information and services, through smartphone leading to financial inclusion.
A report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) says that a 10% increase in mobile penetration can increase the GDP by 1.5%. (Kathuria and Kedia, 2012, “India: Impact of Internet”, ICRIER).
With an initial investment of $200m, SKY Project is pushing the mobile penetration in Chhattisgarh up by 20% leading to an expected growth in GSDP of 3%. This will lead to higher tax revenues for the State (Chhattisgarh’s Tax to GDP ratio is about 8%). The current GSDP is $40b. 3% increase will translate to $1.2b. 8% tax increase will translate to $96m. In just over two years, the higher tax revenues are expected to more than pay for the investment in phones in the first place.
SKY provides the platform for all the stakeholders to initiate the developmental process by providing innovative solutions for government departments by inviting participation of youth. SKY Hackathon was conducted to bring in synergies between public and private parties through citizen centric apps
A critical aspect to sustainability is to enable beneficiaries, who are predominantly first time users, using the existing ecosystem for training, this in turn is expected to foster the habit of using a smartphone to access and benefit from government schemes, information impacting better health, education, jobs and overall standard of living. Further, this will lead to an additional demand of more users within the same household or connected to beneficiaries wanting to buy smartphones and revenue generation through services (recharge/repair/accessories) hence expansion of telecom market.

SKY Project is a long term solution to address the needs of those living on the margins of the digital economy in Chhattisgarh. The focus is on reduce economic inequality and the gender gap by providing access to information and services to each citizen by connecting them through a smartphone and a 4G network. SKY was designed with the objective of providing equal access to opportunities for all, by bringing them into the mainstream digital economy. This does not just lead to digital inclusion but also financial and social inclusion. The beneficiaries identified under the program are 4.5 m women household heads thereby leading directly to gender empowerment in rural Chhattisgarh. In a predominantly patriarchal society in South Asia, women are seeking to break free and assert their own identity. This program gives them the freedom of choice and independent thinking by opening up access to information. The smartphone and the internet access also lead very directly to opportunities for financial independence. The design of the scheme encompasses the shared responsibility by all stakeholders where each stakeholder collaborates and cooperates with the other stakeholders to make it successful. The project aims at bringing households falling under sensitive /disturbed region such as LWE affected and tribal populace into the mainstream. It also entails distributing smartphones to Third Gender enabling inclusive social development.