AI, Rural Vitalisation, Social Returns - new dimensions to drive social innovation

Journeying from the urban dynamism of Seoul to the industrial pulse of Tianjin, Neelam Chhiber, Co-Founder, Industree came across a diverse spectrum of approaches that are shaping today’s social innovation ecosystems during her participation at the Schwab Social Innovation Summit 2025, South Korea and 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC25), or Summer Davos in China convened by World Economic Forum.

In this exclusive wrap-up interview, Chanda P Kumar, Sr Manager Communications at Industree chats with Neelam Chhiber to understand her key takeaways, what they mean for our work in India and the pathway needed to shape the next wave of social innovation. Excerpts from the interview:

Neelam Chhiber, Co-Founder, Industree at Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2025, Tianjin

What was the one major takeaway from the Schwab Social Innovation Summit 2025 in Seoul? 

Today, job creation in any part of the world is challenging. However, it was exciting to see how South Korea is promoting social innovation entrepreneurship very strongly and driving job creation. So South Korea, being at the forefront with its Hallyu or K Culture, seems to be taking a lead on building a Social Innovation ecosystem too, demonstrating how innovative enterprise can drive social change. Basically, they are promoting enterprises that take care of financial, social, environmental bottom lines, relevant to their economy. So, to me, it was good that we had the chance to visit the Center for Social Value Enhancement, funded by SK Group, the second largest corporation in South Korea. The center measures social impact and return on investment in social innovation, and is looking at outcome based financing, as well as investing in social enterprises. 

At the Navigating Decarbonization Session. Copyright: World Economic Forum/Sikarin Fon Thanachaiary

Your thoughts on how Industree’s work aligns & influences the evolving social innovation ecosystem of today?

At the Summer Davos in Tianjin, China, we had the opportunity to set out for a field visit organised by Tencent, which runs WeChat. At this event, a presentation of the Rural CEO program, supported by the Sustainable Social Value vertical at Tencent, was made. The program is in partnership with CIDGA (College of International Development and Global Agriculture), China Agricultural University, part of the National University in Beijing, and the Model Village program of the Chinese government.

In a dialogue with CIDGA, it was shared that despite China's phenomenal economic advancements, pulling millions out of poverty and helping the world meet the Millennium Development Goals, its society faces substantial inequalities. These are urban and rural inequalities and regional inequalities across different regions of the country. Therefore, the Chinese government has been focusing on rural revitalization since 2020. They are furthering the concept of rural businesses anchored in a Rural CEO.  In this model, applicants for the Rural CEO program are trained and paid a salary to go into remote regions to build a business. Mostly they are overlaid on the Model Village program which is promoted at provincial level by local governments. The program is a year long and Tencent will build the platform necessary for these rural CEOs to go to market. As part of the model village program, the local government's job is to provide the infrastructure, but economic activity will be created by rural CEOs, as markets will be distant. The loss of talent in rural China is of deep concern and this is a method being used to move talent back to rural areas.  

This resonated and rang so many bells in me, because Industree for the last 15 years, has been providing professional support for rural communities within the rural economy. India’s rural economy does not suffer from the amount of brain drain that China is seeing, and before it is too late it’s very clear that the path Industree is taking for rural revitalization has been timely for the more than the 25 years that it has been on it!

Industree is building rural professional programs on the foundation of the producer collectives it enables. In China, a conventional top-down approach is being taken, where they don’t have collectives as a foundation . Industree has been working on the COE or the Cadre of Entrepreneur program, to provide leadership for rural manufacturing, processing and even plantation. This is a professional who is entrepreneurial,  and who with a team of paraprofessionals, can support the collective of producers. In Industree’s case the focus is now to build COE’s and para professionals from the community, through its ‘Artha’ program. This apart, the foundation’s Regenearth program over the last 5 years, has supported more than 150 social enterprises globally, enabling more talent to build businesses in the rural economy.

Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2025, Tianjin, People's Republic of China. Copyright: World Economic Forum / Benedikt von Loebell

Tell us about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming pivotal in Social Innovation & Impact.

As expected, the Summer Davos had a large participation from businesses, corporations, and academics on the subject of AI. Through knowledge sessions and interactions, it was quite clear that today, the need to adopt AI is not just to help improve working systems but to holistically understand the value proposition for the communities we work with.

Collecting baseline data with an impact lens is not enough anymore, we need to go beyond and understand what data set capture is needed, to enable artificial intelligence to work for the core economic activity of the communities, to create efficiency and improved productivity. While this is one perspective, there are multiple ways to look at improving long-term outcomes for communities, such as improved health insurance, easier access to capital at lower rates of interest, after being able to show lower risks, etc.

Interestingly, I met one of the participants from Africa- Lady Mariame, Iamthecode.org,  who shared the possibility of AI being used in learning and building micro courses for communities on WhatsApp, right from planting & harvesting to putting the product on the shelf. Thus exponential scale could be possible, which could not be achieved otherwise. The courses could be on voice, in multiple languages. The individual from the community or the collective is handheld to complete her job daily, in the lifecycle of the product. But for the system to manage orchestration of the activities, across complex value chains, it is necessary that the process points are inputted into the system.

Thus, understanding AI and its abilities to build efficiencies and scale up collectives to become more profitable, in not just linear tasks that are performed, but navigating the challenges of non-linear process loops, integral to Industree’s 6C framework, is the challenge before us. Each of the women producers are fantastic at their job, but solutions like these could boost synchronization of activities, essential for profitability, which is important to achieve scale. 

Skill Development feels more important than ever—how do you think India can get this right?

Globally, the lead taken on the definitions of work/ skills/ quality of labor- formal or informal come from the global minority or the developed populations in developed nations, via the ILO and other multilaterals. Today, most nations on the planet are struggling with inequality, loss of jobs, and staring at increasingly unpredictable futures.  

Going forward, it's going to really have to be a Brave New World. Key in this new world should be nomenclature and definitions that come from the reality in the global majority,  which are disenfranchised communities worldwide. Those definitions could work for some economies, and other economies are going to have to build their own. What features define sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, construction etc.  as being formal industries, while rural activities like farming and artisanal work continue to be seen as part of the informal economy? How can a bridging of these features be attempted, keeping the nation and its people at the center? India’s work at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and its work at the Ministry of Rural Development need to talk to each other. 

NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) and NIESBUD (National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development), job roles and sector skill councils - all of these need to be viewed increasingly through the lens of the truly disenfranchised in the rural economy. Today, there is a necessity to create job roles that reflect the contributions of all sectors, including the agricultural and creative economy, and the importance of collaboration among various skill councils. This will be Industree’s contribution going forward in the next 10 years. How is informal and formal defined? The best of both worlds is possible.