The grant to the project “Improved Carrier Access in Rural Emergencies (ICARE)” by Innovadors Lab Pvt Ltd and School of Computer and Information Science, IGNOU (India) was cancelled in August 2016.

ICARE project shall offer timely pick-up and drop-back transportation to rural population in emergencies and adverse health situations for 100,000 rural citizens living in pilot area of Odisha (India). Rural people often suffer from limited access to transportation to travel to health facilities. ICARE shall provide more than 80% rural beneficiaries in project area with access to a vehicle in less than an hour to travel or refer to health facilities. ICARE shall improve the access by engaging vehicles available with local people and facilitate coordination through a call center. ICARE, on the other hand, makes dynamic use of vehicles available in and around rural communities. According to recent Census of India (2011), rural Odisha has some 75,185 four wheelers in some 8 million households, roughly one vehicle in every 106 households. In rural Odisha, there are 500 – 1500 households in a village which has a radius of 3 – 8 km. Given this strength, ICARE proposes to engage the vehicle owners willing to volunteer their time and vehicles for a fee for a service. A call center shall receive calls from health workers and beneficiaries requesting vehicles and the call center would in turn call the vehicle owners who registered to volunteer their vehicles to check their availability. Call center would then dispatch the nearest and willing vehicle owner to the provide pick up and drop by service. The vehicle owner can be reimbursed by the facility for transporting pregnant women, through the maternity transport reimbursement scheme of the government. For other health emergencies, beneficiaries or insurers can make the payment.