Alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and achieving economic prosperity and well-beingis a global challenge. The spread and quantum of this daunting challenge calls for a scalable solution.The aim of the ‘Scalable Architecture for Smart Villages’ project is to contribute to an eective solutionwhich addresses scale as well as customization. In order to achieve both in our new framework forsmart villages, we take an endogenous approach. This approach emphasizes learning which will createa catalytic eect for scale. Learning is an essential component in the process, both for the researchersas well as members of the community. With these principles in mind, our approach proceeds in fourphases, namely discovery, planning, resourcing and executing. In this paper we outline the discoveryphase, which will lay the foundation for developing our framework of scalable smart villages.The Discovery Phase is a research process where the community learns about itself and the researcherslearn about the underlying factors that can help uplift and develop a smart village. Using conventionalqualitative and quantitative research methodology, the researchers and the community will generatebaseline data which will help calibrate villages for future development into smart villages.

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