Know What Works.
Prove What Changes.
Development Catalyst connects every rural household, government scheme, and field intervention into one longitudinal database — giving NGOs, MFIs, SFBs, CSR teams and Governments the evidence they've always needed.
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Households Surveyed
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Members Profiled
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Scheme Enrollments
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Schemes Tracked
The Problem
₹2.6 trillion¹ spent annually.
No one knows what works.
India's rural development sector is massive — but evidence of impact is almost nonexistent.
700M+²
Rural Indians
500+³
Central & State Schemes
Approx 3%⁴
Schemes with impact evidence
¹MoF Economic Survey 2023–24 · ²Census 2011, Registrar General of India · ³PRS Legislative Research 2023 · ⁴ J-PAL / IDinsight
Are we spending trillions without knowing what & how it works?
Why this happens
Paper registers
Field workers fill notebooks. Data never reaches decision-makers or funders.
Siloed spreadsheets
Each NGO uses a different format. No cross-scheme or cross-village visibility.
Duplicate surveys
The same family surveyed four times a year by different programs — data never linked.
No longitudinal tracking
We can't answer: did this family's income improve after the intervention?
Development Paradigm in India
Not one-time gestures
They are sequences. Each intervention sets up the next.
Not all equal
Some move the needle dramatically. Most don't move it at all.
Not isolated
They operate in ecosystems — every action shifts every other.
Not universal
What works in one geography fails silently in another.
Not proportional
Larger spending has never guaranteed larger impact.
Not charity
Development demands the rigour of the most serious business.
Development interventions are not a philanthropic act.
Not anymore.
Yet for decades, decisions worth crores have been made on instinct, annual reports, and incomplete data. Development has been treated like charity — when it demands the rigour of business.
The team behind Development Catalyst saw this gap from the inside. They have worked at India's leading development institutions and held senior roles at large, publicly listed financial companies. They understand both worlds — the development imperative and the business discipline.
Not more spending. Smarter spending.
Not scattered effort. Synergistic impact.
Not guesswork. Evidence.
Because development done right was never charity.
It is — and always should have been — one of the most serious businesses in the country.
The Solution
One platform. Every family.
All programs.
Development Catalyst
A mobile-first field data platform that connects every rural household, government scheme, and field intervention — giving NGOs, MFIs, SFBs, CSR teams and Governments the evidence they've always needed.
* AI layering was designed and trained by professionals holding global CERISE Social Performance Management & Social Stock Exchange (NISM) certifications.
Deep household profiles
Capture 40+ data points per household — identity, economics, amenities, durables, health, and financial relationships. Every family member individually profiled.
Scheme enrollment & tracking
Link households to every government scheme they're enrolled in. Track PM-KISAN, PMJDY, PMAY, NREGA and 30+ more. See coverage gaps instantly.
Longitudinal analytics
Re-survey households over time. Track income changes, scheme uptake, and development indicators. For the first time — measurable, attributable impact.
SHG management
Track Self-Help Groups, their members, loan cycles, meetings, and repayment — fully integrated with individual household finance data.
Secure & role-based
Field staff see only their assigned villages. Supervisors see their block. Admins see everything. Row-level security built in from day one.
How it works
Field-ready in 60 seconds
Sign up your organisation
Create your account, name your NGO or department, and add the districts you work in. Takes under 60 seconds.
Register your villages
Select state → district → block → village. Each village gets its own data silo — secure and separate.
Survey households
Field staff open the app (works offline), walk through a guided form, and capture full household profiles including GPS and photos.
Track scheme enrollments
Mark which families are enrolled in which schemes. See saturation rates and uncovered families instantly.
Measure impact over time
Re-survey the same households each quarter. The analytics layer shows exactly what changed — and what caused it.
Who it's for
Built for the development ecosystem
NGOs & Field Organisations
- ✓Digitise your field operations instantly
- ✓Generate funder reports from real data
- ✓Prove impact to FCRA and CSR donors
- ✓Free for first 3 villages
State & District Government
- ✓Real-time scheme saturation by village
- ✓Identify uncovered BPL households
- ✓Cross-scheme convergence analysis
- ✓Data for district collectors & DMs
Banks, MFIs & NBFCs
- ✓360° borrower household profile
- ✓Credit underwriting with 40+ data points
- ✓SHG savings & repayment track record
- ✓Loan group & over-indebtedness check
Researchers & Impact Investors
- ✓Longitudinal household panel data
- ✓Attributable impact evidence
- ✓SDG alignment scoring
- ✓API access for analysis
Enterprises & CSR Teams
- ✓Verified CSR impact — not estimates
- ✓ESG reporting with real field data
- ✓Baseline vs endline across villages
- ✓Board-ready SDG impact decks, one click
The Mission
Scaling to
10,000 villages by 2027
Development Catalyst is infrastructure for the development sector — a longitudinal database that makes impact provable at village, district, and national scale. For the first time: evidence that development interventions work as intended, by knowing what works and how it works through objective & granular measurements.
10K+
Target villages by 2027
1M+
Households to be profiled
500+
Schemes to be tracked
Ready to bring evidence to
your development work?
Try the live demo — no signup required. Explore real household data from Nallur village, Dindigul.
Launch the App →Demo login: pitchdemo.catalyst@gmail.com · Demo@12345