7th Ideal Village Conference on Rural Transformation for Sustainable Growth

“The future of India lies in its villages” – Mahatma Gandhi

The iconic Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus in Varanasi, the holy city of India, will host the 7^th Ideal Village Conference on Nov 11-13 this year.  The Conference represents a defining moment for the joint aspirations of Stanford University’s Ideal Village Project, WHEELS Global Foundation, Pan-IIT Alumni, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Federation of Indian Physicians' Association (FIPA), USA, BHU, and their program sponsors to launch a rural transformation movement in India, which can serve as the global model for achieving sustainable growth.

Since 2016, Stanford University in USA has been hosting the annual Ideal Village Conference to serve as a collaborative platform for diverse organizations involved in global rural development to come together and work on a holistic approach to improving rural lives, focused on essential needs in water, healthcare, education, energy and livelihoods 

In parallel, WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF) – an initiative of IIT Alumni, was applying technology to find solutions for the needs of rural communities in India for the same key needs of Water, Health, Energy, Education, Livelihood and Sustainability – the acronym for WHEELS.

In 2020, WGF organized a massive funding campaign to send Oxygen concentrators to aid COVID-19 victims in India and conducted 26 global webinars to address both   the serious deficiencies in our public health policies and practices, as well as needs of the post-COVID era. The pandemic caused havoc with the fragile economy of Rural India and brought Stanford University’s Ideal Village Project into a synergistic partnership with WGF, given their common aspirations.

Jointly, they decided to hold the 7^th Ideal Village Conference in India to maintain the momentum and found an ideal host in Prof. Sudhir Jain, BHU’s newly appointed Vice-Chancellor and former director of IIT-Gandhinagar, where he had initiated a creative program for incoming classes of technology students to be immersed in the realities of rural life for six weeks and inspire them to solve rural problems.

With active participation of the Institute of Management Studies at BHU, these stalwarts of technology, industry, IIT alumni networks, medical professionals, NGOs in rural developments and media partners have secured significant Government participation to form a public-private partnership  for launching  a “Rural Transformation Movement” at this year’s Ideal Village Conference.

The organizers are also planning a “Best Practices” competition to identify the most effective rural development programs in each of the six tracks.  Winners will be chosen based on a set of comprehensive criteria and awarded cash prizes along with endorsements to secure CSR funding, to enable these programs to be scaled nationwide to create thousands of Ideal Villages with regular impact measurements and monitoring of progress..

Their vision is to improve the lives of 20% or more of India’s rural population by 2030 by meeting the needs of rural communities in all six tracks and creating a thriving rural community and an enduring rural economy which impacts India’s GDP.

The rural transformation movement plans to raise $50 million in donations, grants and CSR funds to create a sustainable platform and organizational structure involving IITs, Institutes of eminence, regional colleges, and collaborative partnerships with Stanford, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and other major institutions dedicated towards the growth of rural America and the developing world.

India, with 70% of its population in villages and small towns, will be an ideal test bed for creative and cost effective solutions to many rural challenges that lie ahead in achieving the above ambitious goals;   however, as Nelson Mandela often stated “Things are always impossible till somebody makes it possible” 

Ideal Village partner programs: