Field-grade software that works where the network barely reaches.
Grassroots NGOs run India's most important programmes on paper and spreadsheets — not for lack of need, but because good software has always been priced out of reach. MiKa Labs changes that: senior-architected, offline-first tools that NGOs can actually afford, and that keep working long after launch.
Good programmes, starved of good tools.
Field staff collect critical data on paper. Managers consolidate it weeks later, by hand. Problems surface too late to act on, decisions run on instinct, and donor reporting eats the time that should go to the work itself.
The cause isn't awareness — it's economics. Commercial agencies price custom software far beyond grassroots budgets, and off-the-shelf tools rarely survive contact with rural realities: patchy connectivity, low-literacy users, and programme-specific workflows.
One model, four deliberate choices.
Everything about how we work is designed to deliver professional engineering at a price grassroots organisations can actually bear.
Senior-led, always.
Every system is designed, reviewed, and quality-controlled by an engineer with 12 years of industry experience as a developer and technical lead. NGOs get the same architectural rigour a funded startup would — system design, data modelling, security, and code review included.
Built by paid, mentored interns.
Implementation is carried out by engineering interns on fair stipends and structured six-month terms, working under close supervision. This keeps costs a fraction of commercial rates — and trains a new cohort of socially minded engineers with every project.
Made for rural conditions.
Offline-first apps that sync when the network returns, interfaces in the local language, geo-tagging and photo verification for authenticity, and dashboards powered by domain engines we build ourselves — including a WHO anthropometric API for z-scores. Proven across two live Jagruti projects.
Supported for years, not handed over and forgotten.
Software without a maintenance plan dies in eighteen months. Every MiKa Labs engagement includes post-launch support, so the tools keep working — and keep improving — long after the launch demo.
Jagruti: seeing child malnutrition at full resolution.
Jagruti works at the grassroots to address malnutrition among children under five in rural communities. Its field workers visit households to assess children's growth and living conditions — but data collection was manual and fragmented, making analysis and long-term tracking nearly impossible.
We designed and built an end-to-end system: an Android app for field workers and a web dashboard for programme managers, tightly integrated. It now runs two live projects under the Jagruti banner, together covering roughly 1,300 children under five.
- Offline-first capture. Records save on-device and sync when the network returns — no data lost in low-signal villages.
- Authenticity built in. Every visit is geo-tagged and photo-verified for traceable, auditable data.
- Our own WHO anthropometric API. Height, weight and MUAC become WHZ / WAZ / HAZ and nutrition labels through a z-score engine we built in-house — no manual calculation, no third-party dependency.
- Bilingual by design. Field workers work entirely in Kannada; managers toggle Kannada or English.
- Manager's cockpit. Assign field workers, monitor coverage and data quality, analyse trends, and export CSV for donor reporting.
What the data surfaced
Baseline findings from one of the two live projects (914 children), computed by our own WHO anthropometric API — the first time this population's malnutrition burden could be seen at this resolution, enabling early identification of at-risk children. The platform is built around a baseline / endline design to measure change over time; endline measurement is ongoing.
DELIVERED PRO BONO BY OUR FOUNDER WITH ONE PAID INTERN — THE WORKING PROOF OF THE MIKA LABS MODEL.
Every project produces two outcomes.
One budget, two kinds of impact. That's not a slogan — it's the structure of the model.
An NGO gets equipped
A grassroots organisation gains field-grade tools, real-time visibility into its programmes, and the ability to act on evidence — capability that permanently raises the ceiling on what its team can do.
Engineers get made
Interns ship real software for real users under senior mentorship — architecture reviews, field deployment, the works. They leave with a portfolio, professional habits, and first-hand experience of engineering in service of others.
Two ways in.
Whether you run programmes in the field or fund the organisations that do, there's a conversation worth having.
Tell us what's slowing your field work down.
If your team is drowning in paper registers, late data, or reporting overhead, write to us. We'll start with a free needs assessment — no jargon, no obligation — and tell you honestly whether software will help, and what it would take.
Write to usMultiply what your grant rupee does.
Funding MiKa Labs equips multiple grassroots organisations with lasting technology while training young engineers — two documented outcomes per project. Ask for our concept note and a live walkthrough of the Jagruti system.
Request the concept note