Earth Futures series: Identifying high-impact pathways for climate-smart livelihoods in the food and circularity sectors

India’s food systems and circularity sectors form the backbone of livelihoods for millions. Yet, it remains deeply exposed to growing climate pressures. 86% of India’s 126 million farm households operate on less than 2 hectares, while average farm incomes are just INR 8,337 (~USD 88) per month against cultivation costs of INR 3,740 (~USD 40). The structural precarity is stark. Across smallholder agriculture, dairy, fisheries, forestry, and waste management, production systems face increasing stress from erratic weather, resource degradation, and structural inefficiencies. Without adaptive action, climate change could reduce India’s agricultural productivity by up to 25% by 2050.  

These challenges are most acute for the bottom 30% of producers who are thinly capitalized, lack resilient infrastructure, and have limited risk-mitigation capabilities. What appears to be isolated production losses is a systemic failure in which climate risks cascade across value chains and erode incomes and resilience at scale. Existing interventions are fragmented and reactive, and have failed to address the deeply embedded bottlenecks that drive vulnerability. 

A systems-level approach is needed to address this problem and identify high-impact, scalable interventions across interconnected sectors. In this context, The/Nudge Institute, through its ^delta Prize, engaged MSC as the technical partner to identify breakthrough opportunities for climate-resilient livelihoods across five sectors: Agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, and waste management. 

MSC covered eight sub-sectors under agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, and waste management and mapped climate stress points, structural bottlenecks, and existing interventions. This was followed by 40 expert consultations with industry practitioners, researchers, and ecosystem actors and focused listening sessions to present and stress-test problem statements, gather expert feedback, and define measurable thresholds to anchor intervention design and investment decisions. 

The project produced a roadmap of critical problem areas that affect climate-resilient livelihoods across food systems and circularity sectors. It also developed nine defined, measurable problem statements where targeted interventions could accelerate innovation and scale. These spanned regenerative farming, soil diagnostics, weed management, animal health monitoring, poultry market access, pond risk management, low-value waste processing, decentralized wastewater reuse, and productive use of crop residue. Each problem statement was anchored in clear performance thresholds to guide prize design and investment decisions. 

The Nudge Institute commissioned the project as part of the Earth Futures Series, with support from the ^delta prize. 

The development of a DLG Disclosure Intelligence Dashboard for the FACE members’ FinTechs

FACE engaged MSC (MicroSave Consulting) to design, develop, and deploy a disclosure intelligence tool to strengthen transparency and compliance monitoring across India’s digital lending ecosystem. The solution enables systematic tracking of default loss guarantee (DLG) disclosures published by loan service providers (LSPs) and regulated entities (REs), in line with the Reserve Bank of India Digital Lending Directions.

MSC developed this as a centralized, automated dashboard system that integrates website crawling, scraping, and structured data extraction. The tool aggregates publicly available DLG disclosures across diverse formats into a secure, searchable, and time-series-enabled interface. This allows FACE to generate sector-level insights, monitor compliance trends, and significantly reduce the manual effort required to track disclosures.

The system was developed and validated through an iterative, end-to-end process covering data ingestion, extraction, storage, and visualization. MSC worked closely with FACE to define requirements and map existing industry disclosure practices. Based on testing and quality assurance cycles, the solution was refined to address gaps in scraping logic, improve data accuracy, and enhance overall dashboard performance. MSC also provided ongoing maintenance and hyper-care support to ensure the system remains robust and adaptable as disclosure practices evolve.

Development of a Digital Lending App (DLA) Registry Verification tool for consumer awareness

FACE engaged MSC (MicroSave Consulting) to design and pilot a technology-enabled consumer protection solution to address the growing risks posed by unlicensed and fraudulent digital lending apps (DLAs) in India. MSC developed a DLA verification and information portal that enables consumers to validate the legitimacy of lending applications and access key information before use.

The tool is built on publicly available regulatory data, primarily the Reserve Bank of India list of DLAs deployed by regulated entities. It allows users to search by app name or URL and uses intelligent matching to identify the closest verified entries. The system returns authenticated links to the application across platforms such as app stores and websites, enabling users to distinguish legitimate apps from potentially fraudulent ones.

In addition to validation, the tool provides structured, user-friendly information on each DLA, including associated loan service providers (LSPs), regulated entities (REs), and grievance redressal details. This enhances transparency and equips users with the necessary information to make informed decisions and seek recourse where required.

MSC designed the portal with a simple, consumer-facing interface accessible via web, ensuring ease of use for first-time and low-literacy users. The solution also includes a cleaned and standardized dataset of DLAs, which can be searched, viewed, and downloaded. The dataset is periodically updated to reflect changes in the regulatory registry and ensure continued accuracy.

The system was developed through an iterative, user-centric process that included data cleaning, backend matching logic, and interface design. MSC worked closely with FACE to define requirements, test functionality, and refine the solution based on usability and performance considerations. Post-deployment, MSC supported enhancements to improve matching accuracy, strengthen data reliability, and ensure smooth functioning.

As a subsequent enhancement, the solution includes the capability to generate an aggregated dashboard based on the DLA dataset. This provides a consolidated view of ecosystem-level indicators such as the number of DLAs, distribution across LSPs and regulated entities, and platform availability. By transforming fragmented regulatory data into structured insights, the dashboard supports ecosystem monitoring and informed decision-making.

The tool has been integrated into FACE’s website to enable access for consumers and stakeholders, contributing to reduced exposure to fraudulent applications and strengthening trust in the digital lending ecosystem.

Transition from food to nutrition security in India

India is transitioning from food to nutrition security to address public health challenges, such as anemia. According to NFHS-5 (2019–21), anemia affects 57% of women, 25% of men, and 67% of children. While the Public Distribution System (PDS) reached 800 million beneficiaries, it traditionally focused on ensuring caloric sufficiency and not micronutrient deficiencies, particularly iron. 

To bridge this gap, the Government of India integrated fortified rice enriched with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 into national food security programs. This program enabled an estimated INR 20 billion (USD 218.36 million) in capital investment for manufacturing, blending units, and laboratory infrastructure.  

MSC supported the nationwide rollout and helped build a strong rice fortification ecosystem to produce and distribute approximately 40 million metric tons of fortified rice annually. We also helped the Department of Food and Public Distribution advance the rice fortification initiative, which moved from its pilot phase in 2020 to nationwide full-scale implementation in a phased manner by March 2024. The pilot was implemented across 11 districts in 11 states. The rollout excluded wheat-consuming states as well as states and union territories with direct beneficiary transfers under the PDS. 

We provided strategic formulation support, developed an implementation roadmap, and facilitated engagement with states and union territories. Our team conducted landscape studies in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh to assess and strengthen the fortified rice supply chain. These assessments informed a gap analysis and revisions to quality assurance standard operating procedures and led to the design of a digital architecture to improve transparency, monitoring, and quality control across the supply chain. 

MSC also organized regional learning workshops to onboard the state governments and key stakeholders to share implementation experiences, challenges, and best practices. 

The initiative established more than 900 fortified rice kernel manufacturers, 56 fortified rice testing laboratories, and more than 21,000 blending units. This growth created potential employment for 50,000-plus people across India’s fortification ecosystem. The program reached more than 500 million women and children through the distribution of fortified rice through schools under the PM POSHAN scheme, alongside anganwadi centers and fair-price shops. It supported 16 states and union territories to develop sustainable fortification roadmaps.  

The Gates Foundation commissioned the project. 

Creation of an integrated model for health and welfare service delivery in India (Sewapuri block)

In Uttar Pradesh, health and welfare programs often operated in silos, which limited comprehensive service delivery to communities. The central government sponsors multiple schemes in health, nutrition, sanitation, education, and livelihoods. However, rural blocks, such as Sewapuri, faced fragmented implementation, low convergence among departments, and limited coordination among development agencies. These gaps resulted in inefficient resource use, poor awareness of entitlements, and missed opportunities to serve vulnerable populations effectively. 

The NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s think tank, identified the Sewapuri block in Uttar Pradesh to address these challenges. The organization sought to pilot a replicable administrative model at the local government level for the integrated delivery of health and welfare services. The initiative intended to show how coordinated governance and community-level convergence could sustainably improve outcomes and inform national scale-up. 

MSC helped the Varanasi district administration operationalize the Sewapuri Vikas Abhiyan (SeVA). Our team supported the district administration to: 

  • Establish a full-time program support unit (PSU) to drive implementation and convergence; 
  • Design strategic sectoral plans for health, nutrition, education, sanitation, and financial inclusion, supported by detailed action frameworks; 
  • Facilitate convergence among development agencies operating in the block. These agencies include the Piramal Foundation, UNICEF, Jhpiego, IHAT, PCI, IDinsight, and WaterAid; 
  • Develop field-level optimization solutions and a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework to track progress across defined health and nutrition indicators, which include immunization, antenatal care, and nutrition services for children and pregnant women; 
  • Provide advisory and coordination support aligned with the public healthcare delivery system. 

The integrated efforts led to: 

  • Saturation of interventions across all 87 gram panchayats that reached more than 234,000 residents; 
  • Strengthened service delivery across the primary healthcare spectrum, which includes communicable and noncommunicable diseases, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health, and childhood and maternal anemia; 
  • Screening of 95% of the eligible population aged 30 years and above for diabetes and hypertension through health and wellness centers, with referrals to public health centers in line with National Health Mission protocols; 
  • Convergence across 13 central and state ministries, which delivered measurable improvements in health and nutrition outcomes without significant additional funding; 
  • Development of a replicable convergence model that informed national scale-up through the Aspirational Blocks Programme across 500 blocks (district subdivisions) in India. 

The NITI Aayog and the Government of Uttar Pradesh commissioned this project with support from the Gates Foundation, Jhpiego, and WaterAid. MSC served as a technical and strategic partner to the Varanasi district administration. 

 

Transformation of Bihar’s health systems through cancer care, medical education, and procurement reform

In Bihar, India’s third-most populous state, the public health system struggles with persistent gaps in infrastructure, workforce availability, and diagnostic capacity. Public health facilities operate below required standards due to chronic shortages of health workers, which constrain service delivery. Cancer care is particularly limited, with only eight comprehensive cancer centers for an estimated 109,000 new cases annually and screening rates below 1%. This restricts access to timely, high-quality care for rural and underserved populations. 

The Government of Bihar sought to accelerate progress toward critical health sector development goals across cancer care, medical education, and public procurement to address these challenges.  

MSC supported the Government of Bihar through the establishment of a multi-sector program management unit and the design of targeted interventions across three priority areas: Cancer care, medical education, and public procurement. 

For cancer care, MSC helped establish the Bihar Cancer Care and Research Society. We designed the institutional architecture, supported multi-departmental approvals, and enabled leadership recruitment. This laid the foundation for a state-wide, three-tier cancer care system that spans prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. 

For medical education, we designed a context-specific public–private partnership (PPP) model for medical colleges to define bidding criteria and eligibility norms. We provided transaction advisory support for the establishment of medical college hospitals under the PPP mode through tailored models for greenfield and brownfield projects. 

For public procurement, we are supporting reforms to streamline procurement governance, enhance transparency, and institutionalize accountability across departments. 

The Bihar Cancer Care and Research Society is now operational, with leadership in place. The three-tier cancer care ecosystem is expected to benefit more than 140,000 new cancer cases diagnosed annually in Bihar and enable population-wide screening for the state’s 131 million residents. 

Medical college hospitals approved under the PPP mode will add nearly 2,300 Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) seats to the existing 1,645 seats in government medical colleges. The establishment of medical colleges and hospitals across greenfield and brownfield sites is expected to mobilize approximately USD 430 million in private investment and USD 95 million in government investment. 

The Gates Foundation commissioned the project.