The builder's path
For: Kochi can't tell which of its public taps are used, working or legal, so it pays for all of them and risks cutting off families who rely on one.
“The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.”
Routes to a solution
Each route is a different kind of journey, with real people and organisations to contact at each step, starting with those in Kerala.
Step 1
Join an incubator or startup mission
They connect you to schemes and officials.
Kerala's startup agency: grants, incubation and government procurement routes.
Department of Science and Technology support from idea to startup, through technology business incubators.
The tech industry body; startup programmes and a route to industry partners.
Incubator for social enterprises in health, agriculture and livelihoods.
Step 2
Win a seed grant
Prove the idea works with a small, funded prototype.
Kerala's startup agency: grants, incubation and government procurement routes.
Seed money through approved incubators for proof of concept, prototypes and trials.
NITI Aayog's mission: Atal Incubation Centres and challenges for social problems.
National AI mission: datasets, compute and calls for AI applications.
Step 3
Pilot with a public body
A district, city or department tries it with real people.
Kerala's startup agency: grants, incubation and government procurement routes.
The national startup programme: recognition, schemes and a directory of incubators.
NITI Aayog's mission: Atal Incubation Centres and challenges for social problems.
The IT ministry's hub for tech startups, programmes and incubators.
Ideas, sources and tools for this problem, from first interviews to funding.
The utility that bills the Corporation for public taps.
Council decisions and contacts for each division.
Commissioning the survey and would own the register.
Holds the tap count the bill is based on.
Starter prompt
Built from this problem's brief. Paste it into Claude or any AI assistant.
Help me design and build a first working prototype for this problem in Kochi, Kerala, India. Problem: Kochi can't tell which of its public taps are used, working or legal, so it pays for all of them and risks cutting off families who rely on one. Who it hurts: Kochi Corporation, which pays the water bill for public taps, and families in colonies without household connections who depend on them. The moment it hurts: Deciding which taps to keep or remove, without a list of where they are, whether they work or who uses them. What people do today: The Corporation pays a monthly charge based on a tap count from the Kerala Water Authority, and is now sending health inspectors and councillors to survey each division. Why it is still unsolved: No one holds a shared, current map of the taps: the water authority has not answered the Corporation's requests and the new private operator has not collected tap data. What solved looks like: An open, geo-tagged register of every public tap in Kochi, filled in by survey teams and residents, showing whether each tap works, is metered and which households rely on it, so no tap a family needs is removed. Where: Kochi, Kerala, India First, list what you would need to learn from the people affected before building, as interview questions. Then propose the simplest version that would help, the screens or messages it needs, and the data it would use. Keep it cheap to run, accessible, and respectful of people's privacy. Flag anything you are unsure about instead of guessing.
Talk to the people who live it before you build.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
Get a working version in front of people fast.
Using AI is not cheating. Every tool carries the work of the people who made it, and using it well is how knowledge has always moved forward. The thinking, the care for the people who live the problem, and the judgement are still yours.
“The Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.”
Open data that fits this problem.
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it: this is knowledge.”
Tools matched to what this problem needs.
“The things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
Ship it responsibly, and find help and funding.
“Your right is to the work alone, never to its fruits.”
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana
Kit written for this problem from its brief; every link was checked. Links go to each provider's own site. Zetema is not paid for any listing.