India, Feb. 8 -- Over the last two decades, India has invested massively in rural roads. Today, more than 70% of the country's road network runs through rural areas, connecting villages that were once physically isolated. Yet for millions of rural residents, mobility remains constrained, not because roads are absent, but because affordable and reliable transport services are missing. This disconnect between infrastructure development and service provision has quietly emerged as one of India's most critical rural development challenges.

Rural India is home to nearly two-thirds of the country's population and will continue to host the world's largest rural population even in 2050. While the nation toddles to diversify the rural livelihood ...