Smart Villages Movement in India explored in public lecture

How rural villages in India became empowered to provide for themselves through entrepreneurship, job skills and access to global markets will be discussed at a public lecture by an academic from a leading university in the USA. 

Professor Solomon Darwin is the Executive Director of the Garwood Centre of Corporate Innovation Haas Business School at the University of Berkeley California which ranked number seven in Times Higher Education Universities of the world. Known as the Father of the Smart Villages Movement he will deliver a lecture and answer questions at the University of Chester’s Queen’s Park site, home of the Chester Business School, on Monday, November 21 from 9am to 11am. 

Smart Villages are communities in rural areas around the world that use innovative solutions to improve their resilience and standard of living by building on local strengths and opportunities. This approach integrates technology and indigenous rural practices to generate sustainable revenue for villagers and participating companies, therefore increasing overall standard of living and quality of life. 

The Smart Villages Movement partners with government, academia and rural communities to foster independence and sustainable development in Indian villages and other emerging markets. 

Professor Darwin will share how the application of the Open Innovation Model led to the successful delivery of the Smart Villages Movement in India through bringing corporate collaborations between Salesforce, IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Qualicom and AT&T for the benefit of rural communities. 

Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Professor Darwin was an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and has over 13 years of industry experience at Bank of America and Motorola.  

His most recent publication How to Think like the CEO of the Planet: Restoring the Declining Balance Sheet of the Earth aims to enable future leaders to evidence their Environmental, Social and Governance statements to their Boards and prospective entrepreneurs to realise the importance of collaboration and partnerships. 

Professor Solomon was invited to the University of Chester by Joseph McArdle, Director of Health and Medical Innovation and Transformation at the University of Chester’s Business School, and lead for the Digital Solutions programme based at University Centre Shrewsbury, who has supported the delivery and evaluation of the West Mercia Rural 5G (WMR5G) initiative since its beginnings in 2020. 

The cutting-edge Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Rural Connected Communities (DCMS RCC) project has explored new ways to deliver 5G in rural areas and how the fifth generation of mobile data can benefit health, social care and more in its communities.