India stands at a historic moment. As the country looks toward Viksit Bharat@2047 – a vision of a strong economy, inclusive society, resilient ecosystems, and global leadership – the pathway to get there is clear: India doesn’t need more pilots. It needs proven models designed for scale from the start.

Across the global development sector, pilot projects are launched every day—new technologies tested, models vetted, and communities engaged. But if we step back, a difficult truth emerges: too few of these pilots translate into sustainable, scaled impact.

India has been home to some of the most well-documented and successful pilots. In recent years, government efforts have increasingly focused on scaling such innovations—driven by citizen needs, policy ambition, and openness to new delivery models. Government backed programs like the Swachh Bharat Mission, which set out to improve solid waste management, stand as powerful examples of what’s possible when scale is planned from the outset.

However, many promising models continue to fall short of broader adoption. They aren’t embedded into existing systems, lack long-term financing, or are impacted by frequent administrative transitions and shifting priorities. In the absence of clear pathways for institutionalisation, even the most effective innovations risk being relegated to the sidelines—celebrated in case studies but disconnected from systemic impact.

Innovation alone is not enough. Our focus is on building the mechanisms that allow proven models to scale—through government partnerships, sustainable financing, adaptive delivery, and deep system integration.

From Global Insights to Scalable Localised Models

No matter the sector, proven solutions will travel across borders—but true transformation happens when global insights are embedded into local systems. Our work across more than 90 countries has shown that solutions don’t need to be reinvented in every geography. Instead, they need to be reimagined in context, grounded in cultural and institutional realities, and designed to evolve over time.

This is especially true in India, where the scale and complexity of development challenges require not only ambition, but deep contextual adaptation and systems alignment. Some of our most impactful work in India has drawn directly from global programs—translated thoughtfully, not transplanted blindly.

For instance, in India, we took lessons from Project SPRING and asked: How do we move from supporting a few hundred girls to supporting hundreds of thousands of young women across rural India to become self-reliant, confident entrepreneurs?

The answer was Swakalpa—a state-led entrepreneurship development program Palladium implemented in Odisha. Swakalpa trained and certified more than 10,000 individuals and more than 1,000 nano entrepreneurs, resulting in 72% of the women trained in launching their own businesses. It provided not just skills training, but market linkages, access to credit, and long-term handholding—rooted in systems that will outlast the project.
Swakalpa was not a scaled-up pilot. It was a scale-designed model.

India also offers immense opportunity to learn from within, where one project’s insights lay the foundation for another’s innovation.

A compelling example is how the learnings from Project Ujjwal, which aimed to improve access and quality of maternal and newborn care through public-private partnerships in States of Odisha and Bihar, directly helped us lay the design of Project Utkrisht in Rajasthan. Utkrisht was conceptualised as a more outcomes-driven initiative, culminating in the launch of the world’s first healthcare Development Impact Bond.

This model brought together private capital, measurable results, and a strong focus on quality improvement—demonstrating how learnings from Indian projects themselves can shape globally pioneering development models.

Unlocking India’s Green Development Potential

Achieving Viksit Bharat@2047 also means safeguarding India’s environmental foundations. The country’s rich biodiversity and forest ecosystems are both a national treasure and deeply vulnerable to climate risks, land degradation, and unsustainable extraction. At the same time, these landscapes hold vast potential for community-led conservation, climate finance, and green enterprise.

Globally, Palladium leads the Partnerships for Forests (P4F) program, which supports commercially viable partnerships that deliver both forest protection and livelihoods. We’ve also launched Revere, a UK-based climate finance platform that mobilises private capital for nature-based solutions—restoring ecosystems while generating returns for communities and investors alike.

These aren’t abstract ideas; they’re models with direct relevance for India’s green growth pathway. Imagine applying P4F’s approach in India’s tribal belts—where communities sustainably harvest forest products, access ethical markets, and protect their forests through verified conservation agreements. Imagine adapting Revere to create a blended finance vehicle for India’s forest landscapes—funding biodiversity protection while creating rural green jobs.

These are not just possibilities; they are opportunities to build scalable, future-ready models that align with India’s climate and development ambitions.

But doing so will require building trust, listening, and long-term partnerships with government, civil society, and the private sector. It also demands donor flexibility—allowing for adaptation as models grow and conditions shift. Traditional methods, practices, and indigenous knowledge systems must not be overlooked in this process. They carry deep contextual wisdom and, when integrated thoughtfully, can significantly enhance the relevance and sustainability of scale efforts.

Scaling is a discipline, not an afterthought. And it starts with asking the right question from day one: Who will sustain and own this after we leave?

Reimagining Scale for the Decade Ahead

As we look toward the next decade, the global development community must reorient its approach—from fragmentation to integration, from short-term outputs to long-term systems change. In India, the appetite for scale is growing—not just in government but also in civil society, foundations, and the private sector.

The country has both the need and the potential to show the world how scale, when done right, can create transformation that lasts. We’ve seen it through government-led programmes, how focused action can open doors, solve real problems, and touch millions of lives. Imagine if we did this more often, sector by sector, challenge by challenge, testing, improving, and then scaling what works. That’s how we move from ideas to impact. And it’s not just about today.

It’s about building the India we dream for Viksit Bharat@2047; a country that’s economically strong, socially inclusive, environmentally resilient, and leading the world in innovation and talent.

That future is within reach, but only if we keep acting boldly, learning fast, and making delivery our true north.