1) SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The Government of India has initiated a noble endevour to improve the educational development and given the name of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. All the 32 Districts of Rajasthan have covered under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. All the educational schemes have been coordinated and coupled under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to fulfill the will of Government. The efforts are made to bring into the main stream all the districts of states, Tehsils, Blocks, Gram Panchayats, Villages, Habitations and remotest areas on the issue of education and it have been kept into consideration all the requirements and necessities those are inevitable for popularization and development of education.Jurisdiction in DistrictThe program of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is being implemented in all the 9 Blocks of Bap, Bilara, Bhopalgarh, Shergarh, Balesar, Mandor, Luni, Osian, Phalodi and 5 urban areas of Jodhpur City, Bilara, Phalodi, Pipar City and Jodhpur City under all the 153 Clusters, 339 Gram Panchayats, 2165 Villages and 1062 Habitations.

AchievementsSarva Shiksha Abhiyan is being implemented in the district of Jodhpur since 2002-03 financial year. During the year of 2003-04 the total outlay of Annual Budget was Rs. 2110.79 Lac against which a total of Rs. 1229.69 Lac achievement was done, which is 58.25 percent of total target.The annual work plan and Budget of Rs. 3287.62 Lac was approved for the district Jodhpur for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the financial year of 2004-05 against which total achievement of Rs.2494.97 was done, which is 75.88 percentage of total target. The annual work plan and Budget of Rs. 4948.19 Lac was approved for the district Jodhpur for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the financial year of 2005-06 against which total achievement of Rs.4388.65 was done, which is 88.69 percentage of total target. The annual work plan and Budget of Rs. 6287.36 Lac was approved for the district Jodhpur for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the financial year of 2006-07 against which total achievement of Rs.5428.33 was done, which is 86.34 percentage of total target. The annual work plan and Budget of Rs.7724.89 Lac has been approved for the district Jodhpur for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the financial year of2007-08.

The activitywise achievement of the project during the year 2007-08upto June 2007 is as here under:

1. Upgraded SchoolsUnder the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan it has been decided to pay the salary of the Head Master and two teachers of newly upgraded upper primary schools.For the financial year 2007-08 the total target in this activity is 6848 10 teacher's salary for which the total approved provision is Rs.4781.26 Lac against which Rs. 336.32 lac have been utilized in paying salary of 366 teachers.2. Free Text BooksFor the help and upliftment of SC/ST children the free text books are to be distributed in government schools. In the financial year 2007-08 the total target is 12079 free text books are distributed to the children at upper primary level against the provision of Rs.18.12 Lac. The text books have been distributed as per the target combining with the provision available with the primary education department at the level of Department of Education.3. Civil WorksThe total number of 774 works including construction of 28 Cluster Resource Centre, 650 Additional class rooms, 16 Water facility works, 10 Electricity supply, 1 boundary wall, 10 pota building in urban area and 59 major repair works will be taken during the year. The total financial outlay is of Rs. 1283.13 Lac is sanctioned for the year. Upto June 2007, 16 drinking water facility works have been sanctioned and rest works yet to be sanctioned as per the directives of RCEE Jaipur. Total Rs. 13.61 Lac have been expended in this head in meeting out the liabilities of the last financial year and water facility works.4. Repair & MaintenanceThe repair and maintenance grant provision of Rs. 5000/per school is kept for 1304 schools including PS and UPS. 11 In the financial year 2007-08, the eligible schools have been identified and release of this grant to these schools is in process and will be completed up to the end of the month of August 2007.5. Teaching Learning EquipmentsTotal 447 schools are to be upgraded from PS to UPS in this year. The one time grant for acquiring teaching and learning equipments, for such schools, the total provision of Rs. 134.10 Lacs for 447 UPS @ Rs. 50,000/per school and Rs. 89.10 Lacs for 297 UPS those which are not covered under Operation Black Board @ Rs. 50,000/per school is approved. Hence in this head total financial provision of Rs. 223.20 lac is proposed to utilized but this grant has not been transferred to the respective schools yet in compliance of RCEE Jaipur's directives.6. School GrantTo meet the basic need of schools like mats for sitting, chalks, student’s medical check ups, day-to-day need for the school, a provision of Rs. 2,000/per school is provided. In this year an amount of Rs. 59.02 Lacs for 2951 PS and Rs. 20.40 Lacs for 1020 UPS is approved under this head. 3118 schools have been facilitated with the amount of Rs. 62.76 lac in this year up to date.7. Teacher Grant

1

The teacher grant, an amount of Rs. 500/per school is devised to enhance the learning ability and skill development of students providing teaching learning aid in class rooms. An amount of Rs. 37.06 Lacs for 7411 teachers in PS and Rs. 22.89 Lacs for the 4577 teachers in the UPS is provided as an annual target for the district.12 For Total 7761 teachers have been equipped with this aid utilizing Rs. 38.805 lac so far. The rest are listed and proposed amount is going to be released to them very shortly.8. Teacher TrainingThe teacher training provision is devised to develop educational skills and innovative ideas in teachers and program was targeted to train 7411 teachers of PS, 4577 teachers in UPS and 889 New Recruited teachers during the year. Every teacher required to undergo total 20 days training including summer training and other skill oriented trainings. Under this head total financial outlay of Rs. 180.28 Lac is provided. 9404 teachers have been undergone the summer training during this year utilizing the Rs. 15.07 lac. The rest trainings have been programmed and will beorganized as per schedule during the entire year.9. Provision for Disabled ChildrenThe Children studying in the class of 68 with the special needs (Disabled) are addressed specially in the SSA and are targeted to benefit them with different activities as per their specific needs. The total 12770 children have been identified those are affected with some sort of disability and are targeted to facilitate them with the provision of Rs. 113.53 lac as an annual outlay. These activities are devised to be implemented by the end of August 2007. Some Aid and Appliance have been procured and resource persons trained in particular trade are providing theservices at every block level. An amount of Rs. 6.35 lac has been utilized till date. 1310. Innovative Education and Provision for out of School ChildrenUnder innovative education, the Early Child Care and Education (ECCE), Computer Aided Learning Programme (CALP), SC/ST education and Girls Education is included in this head. Mainly training and resource development is targeted in this head. Special efforts are made under SSA to promote girls education among SC, ST and Minority communities. The children those will remain out of school after 30 th Sep 2007 will be tried to be benefited through alternative education by the way of Bridge Courses. A bridge course is planned to upgrade the child as per his skill development and learning level to main stream him as per his education level in the respective class. Rs 2.40 lac have been utilized in bridge courses continued from the last financial year.11. NPEGEL ProgramNational Programme of Education for girls at elementary level (NPEGEL) Program with the annual out lay of Rs.662.90 lac for the year 2007-08 is going to be implemented. It is envisaged to improve and promote girls education especially in low female literacy areas and other backward areas. This program is initiated as a National Program for upliftment of girl’s education level at primary stage. The all needful required facilities are being delivered to the girls viz. classrooms, facilities, library, sports, vocational training and other infrastructural and training aspects will be fulfilled in this programme.The devised activities have been identified and will be come in implementation phase by the end of this month as per approved plan and schedule.12. Formal Education and CTSThe Project is striving hard to bring each and every child of rural and urban areas of the district with the coordination of Education Department, administration, people representatives and the common citizen to the main stream education. The Project is continuously striving to promote and popularize the importance of education among the people of district on the occasion of any national festivals, fairs, celebrations and public gatherings and through the available media of communication. We are organizing informal activities like child fair, morning rallies, slogan writings, Essay writings, meetings of public representatives, SDMC to mobilize people and to ensure people participation in this endeavor. For the cent percent enrollment of children, of school going age, those who dropped out and those who never gone to the schools, Government has initiated Mukhya Mantri Shiksha Sambal Mahabhiyan which is being implemented all over the state by the 16 th July 07 for a month. The progress of Mukhya Mantri Shiksha Sambal Mahabhiyan can be viewed inwww.rajshiksha.gov.in

2) Vijay Mahajan

In India there are three major models of delivery of microfinance. We at BASIX have distilled the principles of some of the best practices across the world and improvised upon them. However each model has its own merits and seems to work under differing conditions. The Grameen Model which was pioneered by Prof Muhammed Yunus of Grameen Bank is perhaps the most well known, admired and practiced model in the world. The model involves the following elements. • Homogeneous affinity group of five

2

• Eight groups form a Centre • Centre meets every week • Regular savings by all members • Loan proposals approved at Centre meeting • Loan disbursed directly to individuals • All loans repaid in 50 installments The Grameen model follows a fairly regimented routine. It is very cost intensive as it involves building capacity of the groups and the customers passing a test before the lending could start. The group members tend to be selected or at least strongly vetted by the bank. One of the reasons for the high cost is that staff members can conduct only two meetings a day and thus are occupied for only a few hours, usually early morning or late in the evening. They were used additionally for accounting work, but that can now be done more cost-effectively using computers. The model is also rather meeting intensive which is fine as long as the members have no alternative use for their time but can be a problem as members go up the income ladder. The greatness of the Grameen model is in the simplicity of design of products and delivery. The process of delivery is scalable and the model could be replicated widely. The focus on the poorest, which is a value attribute of Grameen, has also made the model a favorite among the donor community. However, the Grameen model works only under certain assumptions. As all the loans are only for enterprise promotion, it assumes that all the poor want to be self-employed. The repayment of loans starts the week after the loan is disbursed – the inherent assumption being that the borrowers can service their loan from the ex-ante income. Both these assumptions could be questioned. There is enough literature to question whether it is the best model for the poorest – particularly when their ability to take risks with new enterprise might not be up to the mark. There are also questions raised on the fact that the Grameen model excludes many. One of the necessary conditions for this model to work is discipline and growth of the number of clients. By design this model might not be appropriate for sparsely populated areas like Kutch in Gujarat, or areas where there is a widespread migration of the labour class such as in parts of Rajasthan, Mahaboobnagar District of Andhra Pradesh and Bharuch District of Gujarat.

Malcolm Harper

To add to what Vijay has been saying about the Grameen Model — in its operations, Grameen Bank and some of its ‘replicators’ outside and within India have introduced more flexible products for farming, housing (a long standing Grameen product) and other purposes. While the Grameen method is time consuming for members, it is also quite easy for them; the only decisions they have to make as a group are whether or not to accept their fellow members’ loan proposals, which is usually somewhat of a formality, since loans are at least initially disbursed on a strict rota basis. It is indeed quite simple for the bank but also, perhaps more important, for the members. Hence it may be the best method for seriously ‘disempowered’ people who lack confidence. An SHG is a bank, albeit on a micro-scale, and it takes skill and persuasive powers to run it.People do not borrow for ‘enterprise purposes only’ as Vijay said. They do borrow ‘officially’ for non-enterprise purposes, particularly for their husbands’ businesses, and unofficially a great deal more, for marriage, food, sickness and all that. As to whether it is the best model for the poorest, there is quite a lot of evidence from Bangladesh in particular that the Grameen model benefits the poorest least and that it actually harms many people. Its very simplicity leads staff to focus exclusively on recoveries, and hence to mobilise fierce group pressure which has led to seizure of roofing mate-rial as security, hence houses being torn down, and even suicides. The Grameen model emerged from the poor-focused grassroots institution, Grameen Bank, started by Prof. Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh. It essentially adopts the following methodology:

A bank unit is set up with a Field Manager and a number of bank workers, covering an area of about 15 to 22 villages. The manager and workers start by visiting villages to familiarize themselves with the local milieu in which they will be operating and identify prospective clientele, as well as explain the purpose, functions, and mode of operation of the bank to the local population. Groups of five prospective borrowers are formed; in the first stage, only two of them are eligible for, and receive, a loan. The group is observed for a month to see if the members are conforming to rules of the bank. Only if the first two borrowers repay the principal plus interest over a period of fifty weeks do other members of the group become eligible themselves for a loan. Because of these restrictions, there is substantial group pressure to keep individual records clear. In this sense, collective responsibility of the group serves as collateral on the loan.

3

Process Outline

SURVEY OF VILLAGES / SLUMS

PROJECTION MEETINGS

FORMATION OF GROUPS

TRAINING OF GROUPS- 7 DAYS

START OF KENDRA MEETINGS

MEMBERS START WEEKELY MARGIN MONEY COLLECTION

MEMBERS ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE LOANS

LOANS REPAYMENT IN EASY INSTALLMENTS

3) RURAL MARKETING: AMUL

The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited, popularly known as Amul Dairy is a US $ 500 million turnover institution.

Built up with a network of over 13000 Village Co-operative Societies and 2 million plus members its milk collection average of 6.04 million litres/day makes it the largest producer of milk and milk products in the world.

For promotion it carries out the following:

advertisements on local radio road shows in villages sponsoring local fairs to promote self image

AMUL’s IN RURAL INITIATIVES:

Major part is that the farmers have total control over production, procurement and marketing. Insurance against natural calamities. Establish telecenters and enhance technology in villages. To purchase all milk that member farmers produced. To sell milk at affordable prices so as to serve a large number of consumers In the rural area. To develop and deliver services that will improve lives of people in the network. To hire professional managers, to run the federation and unions, whose values Included upliftment of rural poor. AMUL introduced an electronic automatic milk collection system in 691 milk collection centres, The system

weighs the milk and measures its fat content at the time of delivery to the centre.This system reduced time required for collecting the milk.which enabled immediate payments to the farmer. In the initial phases, to convince sceptical farmers, the AMCUs were installed free of cost and the co-operative was requested to pay

4

up only if they found the unit satisfactory. However, the experiment paid off and these initiatives made farmers aware to the benefits of the new system.

By using AMCUs and making IT literacy compulsory for its employees, Amul left no stone unturned in promoting its IT initiatives. This initiative has increased the trust and transparency for IT in rural areas.

veterinary first aid services, by trained personnel, were made available in the villages.The Union's 16 mobile veterinary dispensaries are manned by fully qualified staff. All the villages are visited bi-monthly, on a predetermined day, to provide animal health care. A 24-hour Emergency Service is also available. Not only that, a balanced feed concentrate is manufactured in the Union's Cattle Feed Plant and sold to the members through the societies at cost price.

Live exposure to various modern technologies and their application in day-to-day life has not only made the members aware of these developments but also made it easier for them to adopt these very processes for their own betterment.

4) CONTRACT FARMING

Contract farming can be defined as agricultural production carried out according to an agreement between a buyer and farmers, which establishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products. Typically, the farmer agrees to provide established quantities of a specific agricultural product, meeting the quality standards and delivery schedule set by the purchaser. In turn, the buyer commits to purchase the product, often at a pre-determined price. In some cases the buyer also commits to support production through, for example, supplying farm inputs, land preparation, providing technical advice and arranging transport of produce to the buyer’s premises.

Contract farming is one of the different governance mechanisms for transactions in agrifood chains. Well managed contract farming is considered as an effective approach to help solve many of the market linkage and access problems for small farmers.

The process of contract farming in India involves scientific and optimum use of land and farm resources for maximum output of agriculture produce. Small time farmers practicing primitive agricultural methods for cultivation and harvesting of crops dominate the Indian agriculture sector. But, with the liberalization of India economy, there has been a sudden spurt in contract farming in India. Moreover, today more and more established business houses are taking interest in the business of contract farming in India.

Farmers in India are all set to see a sea-change in agriculture sector soon, thanks to contract farming.

Winds of change are blowing across the Indian agricultural landscape with the advancement of contract farming. While earlier it was limited to a certain small initiatives by the corporate sector, it is likely to become a norm rather than exception, thanks to the entry of business giants like Reliance and ITC and also because of the encouraging change in the government policies. The size of agreements for contract farming with the farmers is also increasing manifold.

Land will be permanently owned and cultivated only by farmers said that Agriculture Min, who does not want to encourage leasing of land to the private sector.

It is clear why the business sector is gunning for contract farming. They seek to integrate the supply chain to ensure timely availability of quality and quantity of raw material. Significantly, it also reduces the procurement cost for them by doing away with the middlemen. It leads to significant gains for them, as not only do they get the raw material as per their specific demands, the cost is also much less. 

PepsiCo was the first company in India to start contract farming of tomatoes in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. Reliance Life Sciences, ITC (agri-business division) and McDonalds are some of the prominent business giants, which have either started contract farming projects already or are in the process of actively discussing them with various state governments. PepsiCo and other companies have used the contract system for the cultivation of Basmati rice, chilli and groundnut, as well as for vegetable crops such as potato. 

5

The model which is most popular in the country today is the one in which the contractor supplies all the inputs required for cultivation, while the farmer supplies land and labour. However, the terms and nature of the contracts vary according to the crops grown, the agencies involved, the farmers themselves and technologies and the context in which contract farming is taken up. Generally, a farmer's participation is limited to production in the fields. 

The main concern is that the land, which is currently used to grow staple crops like wheat and rice, will be used to grow crops required by the food-processing industry, which also has a significant overseas market. The switch to contract farming, therefore, leads to a rise in exports.

In fact, many corporates enter contract farming to fulfil their export obligations. It is believed that contract farming would double agriculture exports from India to $20 billion by 2010. Many believe that the rampant increase in contract farming will eventually lead to loss of food security of the country, implying that the country might become dependent on imports.

Advantages for farmers:

Often inputs and production services are supplied by the sponsor. It introduces new technology and also enables farmers to learn new skills. Farmers’ price risk is reduced as prices are specified in advance and it provides an assured market for the

farmers.

Disadvantages for farmers:

Marketing problems can mean that not all the contracted production is purchased. Sponsors may be unreliable or might try to exploit the farmers.

Advantages for sponsors:

It is more reliable than open market purchases and the company faces less risk by not being involved in production.

The quality is more consistent than if purchases were obtained from the open market. The company is guarded against the risk of price fluctuations.

Disadvantages for sponsors:

Poor management and lack of consultation with farmers may lead to farmer discontent. Farmers may sell outside contract. (extra contractual marketing) Farmers may divert inputs supplied on credit to other purposes, thereby reducing yields.

PEPSI Co.

Food and beverage major Pepsico is planning to increase its sourcing of raw materials from contract farming and venture into new states regarding this.

The company's foods business unit, Frito-Lay, procures 50 per cent of potatoes, required for making chips and strips, from contract farming in eight states across the country.

They have 12000 – 15000 acres under contract farming producing 60000 tonnes of potatoes. It is developing 2-3 new varieties of potatoes and is producing 2000 – 2000 tonnes for quality seed.

Contract farming with PepsiCo has enhanced farmers’ incomes in the state of Punjab and helped reduce indebtedness, a recent survey conducted by Nielsen reports. The survey was conducted in about 30 villages located in the districts of Jalandhar and Amritsar with a 200 farmer sample size.

According to the report, the incomes of contract farmers with PepsiCo increased due to higher yield, better quality of seeds and optimum usage of inputs due to better technical support. The report said that after having adopted contract

6

farming with PepsiCo 98% of the farmers felt that the yield of basmati paddy increased and thus was able to bring in more land under basmati cultivation.

Farmers who had taken loan were of the opinion that contract farming with PepsiCo had helped reduce their indebtedness.

CADBURY

The company wants to source all the cocoa for its Indian products from within the country.

The company has plans to increase acreage for cocoa cultivation. The increase in acreage will involve a tripling of investments in contract farming and in five years it wants to source cocoa for domestic production entirely from India.

India produced about 10,000 tonne of cocoa in 2007–08, with annual demand of about 18,000 tonne. Cadbury India which already procures 5,000 tonne of cocoa through contract farming now wants that number to increase.

In a move to promote cocoa farming, Cadbury India Ltd and the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Department have entered into an agreement. The agreement is to promote cocoa farming as an intercrop through a contract farming and buyback arrangement with coconut farmers. According to a press release, the five-year agreement aims to bring 50,000 acres under cocoa farming, which would provide coconut farmers an additional income of Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) a year. The agreement was signed in Tiruchi, the release said. 

Under the arrangement, cocoa would be promoted as an intercrop in the coconut farms. Cadbury and the Horticulture Commissionerate would identify cocoa farming areas, assist the farmers financially and provide technical inputs and facilitate institutional credit.Cadbury India would provide the seedlings at Rs 4 each and buy the cocoa beans at a minimum floor price of Rs 60 a kg. The company will enter into separate agreements with farmers.

5) 1500 FARMERS COMMIT MASS SUICIDE IN INDIA

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure.

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels. The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago. Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well.

The government blames framers for being against development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without proper planning. All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into consideration when planning policies.

The crop failures, which took place in the agricultural state of Chattisgarh, were prompted by falling water levels. Nearby forest depletion and poorly planned government dam projects contributed to the falling water level. Combined with the vicious money-lending schemes that are prevalent in the region, many farmers felt that death was the only option in the face of insurmountable debt.

Suicides by Indian farmers have been an ongoing reality for years. Almost every village in Punjab and Maharashtra has witnessed a suicide in their once - prosperous farming families, the BBC reported.

National Crime Records Bureau statistics say close to 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997.

The Punjab government says the state produces nearly two-thirds of the grain in India. But the state has faced many economic crises since the the mid-1990s.

7

Many of the country's farmers are committing suicide in response to the severe droughts, heat waves and wildlife fires that have been ravaging the country for the last several years.

Since long time, Indian farmers have been facing a number of socioeconomic problems, such as harassment by moneylenders, inability to repay debts following crop loss, inability to get medical treatment for the family, etc. The problem is compounded by lack of positive and cooperative support from banks especially in the face of inclement weather and market fluctuations.

The government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.

6) 4 A’s approach of Indian Rural Market

Opportunity

The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that MNC’s cannot afford to ignore. With 128 million households, the rural population is nearly three times the urban.

As a result of the growing affluence, fuelled by good monsoons and the increase in agricultural output to 200 million tones from 176 million tones in 1991, rural India has a large consuming class with 41 per cent of India's middle-class and 58 per cent of the total disposable income.

The importance of the rural market for some FMCG and durable marketers is underlined by the fact that the rural market accounts for close to 70 per cent of toilet-soap users and 38 per cent of all two-wheeler purchased.

The rural market accounts for half the total market for TV sets, fans, pressure cookers, bicycles, washing soap, blades, tea, salt and toothpowder, What is more, the rural market for FMCG products is growing much faster than the urban counterpart.

The 4A approach

The rural market may be appealing but it is not without its problems: Low per capita disposable incomes that is half the urban disposable income; large number of daily wage earners, acute dependence on the vagaries of the monsoon; seasonal consumption linked to harvests and festivals and special occasions; poor roads; power problems; and inaccessibility to conventional advertising media.

However, the rural consumer is not unlike his urban counterpart in many ways.

The more daring MNC’s are meeting the consequent challenges of availability, affordability, acceptability and awareness (the so-called 4 A’s) »

Availability

The first challenge is to ensure availability of the product or service. India's 627,000 villages are spread over 3.2 million sq km; 700 million Indians may live in rural areas, finding them is not easy. However, given the poor state of roads, it is an even greater challenge to regularly reach products to the far-flung villages. Any serious marketer must strive to reach at least 13,113 villages with a population of more than 5,000. Marketers must trade off the distribution cost with incremental market saturation. Over the years, India's largest MNC, Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of Unilever, has built a strong distribution system which helps its brands reach the interiors of the rural market.

To service remote village, stockiest use autorickshaws, bullock-carts and even boats in the backwaters of Kerala. Coca-Cola, which considers rural India as a future growth driver, has evolved a hub and spoke distribution model to reach the villages. To ensure full loads, the company depot supplies, twice a week, large distributors which who act as hubs. These distributors appoint and supply, once a week, smaller distributors in adjoining areas. LG Electronics

8

defines all cities and towns other than the seven metros cities as rural and semi-urban market. To tap these unexplored country markets, LG has set up 45 area offices and 59 rural/remote area offices.

Affordability

The second challenge is to ensure affordability of the product or service. With low disposable incomes, products need to be affordable to the rural consumer, most of who are on daily wages. Some companies have addressed the affordability problem by introducing small unit packs. Godrej recently introduced three brands of Cinthol, Fair Glow and Godrej in 50-gm packs, priced at Rs 4-5 meant specifically for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — the so-called `Bimaru' States.

Hindustan Lever, among the first MNC’s to realize the potential of India's rural market, has launched a variant of its largest selling soap brand, Lifebuoy at Rs 2 for 50 gm. The move is mainly targeted at the rural market. Coca-Cola has addressed the affordability issue by introducing the returnable 200-ml glass bottle priced at Rs 5. The initiative has paid off: Eighty per cent of new drinkers now come from the rural markets. Coca-Cola has also introduced Sunfill, a powdered soft-drink concentrate. The instant and ready-to-mix Sunfill is available in a single-serve sachet of 25 gm priced at Rs 2 and mutiserve sachet of 200 gm priced at Rs 15.

Acceptability

The third challenge is to gain acceptability for the product or service. Therefore, there is a need to offer products that suit the rural market. One company which has reaped rich dividends by doing so is LG Electronics. In 1998, it developed a customized TV for the rural market and christened it Sampoorna. It was a runway hit selling 100,000 sets in the very first year. Because of the lack of electricity and refrigerators in the rural areas, Coca-Cola provides low-cost ice boxes — a tin box for new outlets and thermocol box for seasonal outlets.

The insurance companies that have tailor-made products for the rural market have performed well. HDFC Standard LIFE topped private insurers by selling policies worth Rs 3.5 crores in total premium. The company tied up with non-governmental organizations and offered reasonably-priced policies in the nature of group insurance covers. With large parts of rural India inaccessible to conventional advertising media — only 41 per cent rural households have access to TV — building awareness is another challenge. Fortunately, however, the rural consumer has the same likes as the urban consumer — movies and music — and for both the urban and rural consumer, the family is the key unit of identity. However, the rural consumer expressions differ from his urban counterpart. Outing for the former is confined to local fairs and festivals and TV viewing is confined to the state-owned Doordarshan. Consumption of branded products is treated as a special treat or luxury.

Awareness

Hindustan Lever relies heavily on its own company-organized media. These are promotional events organized by stockiest. Godrej Consumer Products, which is trying to push its soap brands into the interior areas, uses radio to reach the local people in their language.

Coca-Cola uses a combination of TV, cinema and radio to reach 53.6 per cent of rural households. It doubled it’s spend on advertising on Doordarshan, which alone reached 41 per cent of rural households. It has also used banners, posters and tapped all the local forms of entertainment. Since price is a key issue in the rural areas, Coca-Cola advertising stressed its `magical' price point of Rs 5 per bottle in all media. LG Electronics uses vans and road shows to reach rural customers. The company uses local language advertising. Philips India uses wall writing and radio advertising to drive its growth in rural areas.

The key dilemma for MNC’s ready to tap the large and fast-growing rural market is whether they can do so without hurting the company's profit margins.

7) IOC, Dabur to tie up for rural marketing

The oil firm’s retail outlets spread across the country will stock a range of Dabur’s Ayurvedic products, including over-the-counter medications and cosmetics

9

Public sector oil marketer Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) is entering into an exclusive tie-up with New Delhi-based consumer products firm Dabur India Ltd for a rural retail business. The oil firm’s 1000-strong chain of retail outlets spread across the country will stock a range of Dabur’s Ayurvedic products, including over-the-counter medications and cosmetics.

Shelf space: IOC’s 1,000 retail outlets across the country will stock a range of Dabur’s Ayurvedic products

A formal agreement between the two companies is yet to be signed. IOC has drawn up plans to extend its retail presence to non-fuel items and already offers a range of products from financial services to vegetables and stationery.

“We are looking at widening our product base to essential non-fuel items and FMCG (fast moving consumer good) items and reach out to rural women,” said A.M.K. Sinha, executive director, retail sales, IOC. “However, as rural customers are more price-sensitive and conservative, we were looking for quality products that could be made available at their price points.”

A senior Dabur India executive, who did not wish to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media, added that the proposed tie-up will boost the company’s presence in rural markets. He said the firm already has very strong products such as Dabur Amla hair oil in smaller packs for the rural market and Dabur Red toothpaste and toothpowder but that the tie-up would give it an opportunity to retail across 1,000 additional outlets.

The executive said a line of baby-care products would be among the products introduced. Around half of Dabur’s sales turnover comes from rural sales. Dabur executives were unavailable for comment.

Dabur’s Ayurvedic products include the Vatika range of hair oils, shampoos, fairness creams and packs as well as over-the-counter medications such as Chyawanprash, Isabgol, Shilajit and Gulabari.

IOC’s rural retail outlets, called Kisan Seva Kendras, sell a host of products including financial services, agricultural implements, farm inputs such as seeds and pesticides as well as vegetables and stationery. The firm also offers money transfer facilities at select outlets through Western Union.

IOC has drawn up plans to strengthen its rural presence by further by increasing the number of stores to 1,500 by the end of the fiscal year and to 5,000 stores by 2012, Sinha said. IOC’s Kisan Seva Kendras service nearly 50% of the fuel needs in rural India.

“The challenge for IOC is to convert the assured footfalls that they have in their fuel retail outlets into buyers for the non-fuel items too,” said retail analyst Gibson Vedamani. “From that perspective, the IOC-Dabur tie-up has a lot of potential as both the companies are well-known names for rural folks and the availability of both brands under the same roof should spur sales.”

In 2004 when IOC launched its non-fuel retail business, it had segmented its efforts into urban, rural and highway with a proposed investment of Rs750 crore. While the rural and highway segments have taken off, the urban business has lagged behind.

10

8) 'Thanda' Goes Rural

In early 2002, Coca-Cola India (CCI) launched a new advertisement campaign featuring leading bollywood actor - Aamir Khan.

The advertisement with the tag line - 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola4' was targeted at rural and semi-urban consumers. According to company sources, the idea was to position Coca-Cola as a generic brand for cold drinks.

The campaign was launched to support CCI's rural marketing initiatives. CCI began focusing on the rural market in the early 2000s in order to increase volumes.

This decision was not surprising, given the huge size of the untapped rural market in India. With flat sales in the urban areas, it was clear that CCI would have to shift its focus to the rural market. Nantoo Banerjee, spokeswoman - CCI, said, "The real market in India is in the rural areas.

If you can crack it, there is tremendous potential."However, the poor rural infrastructure and consumption habits that are very different from those of urban people were two major obstacles to cracking the rural market for CCI.

Because of the erratic power supply most grocers in rural areas did not stock cold drinks. Also, people in rural areas had a preference for traditional cold beverages such as 'lassi'6 and lemon juice.

Further, the price of the beverage was also a major factor for the rural consumer

CCI's Rural Marketing Strategy

CCI's rural marketing strategy was based on three A's - Availability, Affordability and Acceptability. The first 'A' - Availability emphasized on the availability of the product to the customer; the second 'A' - Affordability focused on product pricing, and the third 'A'- Acceptability focused on convincing the customer to buy the product.

Availability

Once CCI entered the rural market, it focused on strengthening its distribution network there. It realized that the centralized distribution system used by the company in the urban areas would not be suitable for rural areas.

In the centralized distribution system, the product was transported directly from the bottling plants to retailers (Refer Figure I). However, CCI realized that this distribution system would not work in rural markets, as taking stock directly from bottling plants to retail stores would be very costly due to the long distances to be covered.

The company instead opted for a hub and spoke distribution system .Under the hub and spoke distribution system, stock was transported from the bottling plants to hubs and then from hubs, the stock was transported to spokes which were situated in small towns. These spokes fed the retailers catering to the demand in rural areas.

CCI not only changed its distribution model, it also changed the type of vehicles used for transportation. The company used large trucks for transporting stock from bottling plants to hubs and medium commercial vehicles transported the stock from the hubs to spokes.

11

For transporting stock from spokes to village retailers the company utilized auto rickshaws and cycles. Commenting on the transportation of stock in rural markets, a company spokesperson said, "We use all possible means of transport that range from trucks, auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws and hand carts to even camel carts in Rajasthan and mules in the hilly areas, to cart our products from the nearest hub."7

In late 2002, CCI made an additional investment of Rs 7 million (Rs 5 million from the company and Rs 2 million from the company's bottlers) to meet rural demand. By March 2003, the company had added 25 production lines and doubled its glass and PET bottle capacity.8...

CCI's Rural Marketing Strategy

CCI's rural marketing strategy was based on three A's - Availability, Affordability and Acceptability. The first 'A' - Availability emphasized on the availability of the product to the customer; the second 'A' - Affordability focused on product pricing, and the third 'A'- Acceptability focused on convincing the customer to buy the product.

Affordability

A survey conducted by CCI in 2001 revealed that 300 ml bottles were not popular with rural and semi-urban residents where two persons often shared a 300 ml bottle. It was also found that the price of Rs10/- per bottle was considered too high by rural consumers...

Acceptability

The initiatives of CCI in distribution and pricing were supported by extensive marketing in the mass media as well as through outdoor advertising.

The company put up hoardings in villages and painted the name Coca Cola on the compounds of the residences in the villages.

Further, CCI also participated in the weekly mandies by setting up temporary retail outlets, and also took part in the annual haats and fairs - major sources of business activity and entertainment in rural India...

Future Prospects

CCI claimed all its marketing initiatives were very successful, and as a result, its rural penetration increased from 9% in 2001 to 25% in 2003. CCI also said that volumes from rural markets had increased to 35% in 2003.

The company said that it would focus on adding more villages to its distribution network. For the year 2003, CCI had a target of reaching 0.1 million more villages.

Analysts pointed out that stiff competition from archrival PepsiCo would make it increasingly difficult for CCI to garner more market share.

PepsiCo too had started focusing on the rural market, due to the flat volumes in urban areas.

Like CCI, PepsiCo too launched 200 ml bottles priced at Rs. 5. Going one step ahead, PepsiCo slashed the price of its 300 ml bottles to Rs 6/- to boost volumes in urban areas...

12

9)

The main occupation of 65% of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) members is agriculture still the farmer remains hungry.Following the Gandhian ideology of building self-reliant villages, SGMH has set-up farmers own company RUDI to link the small farmers to the end consumers and develop the supply chain. Thereby ensuring fair returns and food security.

Reasons that led to the formation of Rudi:

SEWA, from its experience of organizing small and marginal farmers, realized that small farmers and rural households lack access to markets, especially towards their daily consumption needs. This invariably resulted in health problems and malnutrition. Often the farmers couldn’t consume what they produced because of insufficient storage space at their homes. The price fluctuations in the market were high. While they faced reduced prices during the harvesting season because of a glut in the market, the prices were higher when they had to buy grains at other times. Further, SEWA’s rural members often had the need to buy produce on credit, as their incoming cash flows didn’t coincide with their consumption patterns. All this resulted in starvation and compulsory migration of the communities in search of work and livelihood. Out of this need, and out of SEWA’s strong belief in the Gandhian vision of a self reliant village, came the Rudi initiative in 2001.

Concept of Rudi:

RUDI is unique in the sense that the owners and managers of the company are 2,65,000 small and marginal farmers themselves. RUDI has built a robust rural distribution network that strengthens the entire commodity supply chain and links the farmer directly to the end consumer. Thereby the small farmer becomes the owner, manager, producer and supplier of the entire distribution network. As a result of this the farmers get fair returns for the produce, the rural poor households have access to food security and it generates employment opportunities for the rural poor.RUDI’s core values are based on the Gandhian philosophy that scarce rural capital should strengthen the village economy by rotating within the village itself. By creating a platform by which goods from rural farmers can be processed by rural workers and then consumed by rural consumers, RUDI is unique in the sense that it involves procuring, processing, packaging, and distribution of food grains. Processing generates employment and increases income.

Impact of Rudi initiative:

RUDI helps farmers get fair prices and increased income (eg. In case of sale of castor the farmers earlier got Rs. 365-370 for their produce but due to RUDI initiative, they now get Rs. 470 per tonne.) RUDI is helping rural villages keep their scarce resources within the village while helping the Indian economy take a significant step in the direction of truly “inclusive growth”. RUDI promoted by SEWA and SGMH started on a pilot baisis in 1 district in Gujarat with 175 RUDI ben covering 125 villages. Gradually, RUDI has spread to 14 districts of Gujarat and in 6 states of India and has 1500 RUDI ben. RUDI is also present in Afghanistan. Today this pilot has grown into a for profit company with 2,65,000 farmers as shareholders and therefore owners and managers of the company. RUDI procures the food grains from the small and marginal farmers locally. This process gives the farmers better prices and negotiation leverage and direct access to market at their doorstep thereby eliminating the exploitative traders and middlemen. In order to increase the collective strength and the bargaining power of small & marginal farmers, RUDI also provides them with access to daily prices of the commodities through Mobile text messages

10) Introduction to Fake Products

13

Fake products are of two types – one: counterfeit products and two: pass-off products.  Counterfeit products are fake products that bear identical name of product/ packaging/graphics/colour scheme and even same name and address as the genuine manufacturer. Someone produces these to look exactly like real products other than the legal owner of the real products, trademarks and product packaging.  Sometimes it is becoming more and more difficult to tell which is the real  "Ponds" talcum powder and "Clinic Plus" shampoo from the fake products.

Pass-off products use similar sounding or are similar in spelling (for example "Luk" for "Lux", "510" for "501", "Saveena" for "Sabeena", "Sun Max" or "Super Master". They use similar type of packaging or colour or designs.  They come out with the motive of misleading and cheating ordinary consumers who are uneducated or in a hurry in purchasing products.

A study conducted by AC Nielson, a research agency reveals that FMCG industry loses around 2500 crores annually to counterfeits and pass-off products.  According to Ashok Chhabra, Executive Director, P&G the fake products are affecting the sales of leading brands to the extent of 20 to 30 percent.  Another recent survey conducted by AC Nielson reveals that top brands in India are estimated to lose up to 30 percent of their business to fake products.  Besides the loss of revenue, the leading companies also face the loss in the damage to brand image and brand loyalty of consumers.

Laws Governing

Following are the laws under which legal action can be taken against manufacturers and sellers of fake products:

i. Indian Penal Code 1860ii. Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940iii. Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954iv. Consumer Protection Act, 1986v. Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 andvi. Trademarks Act, 1999

The rural consumers by looking into the ads of leading chocolate companies unknowingly purchase the fake chocolate brands because of their impulses. 

Hence, the researcher has conducted a survey in the petty shops in rural areas to find out the fake chocolates available.

List of Fake Chocolates/Toffees available in rural areas

S. No. Original Product Fake Product

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.

Dairy MilkKit KatCoffee BiteMango BiteAasaiPoloVicks

Daily MilkKir KatCoffee ToffeeMango ripe and mango bitsAashaRoloVibex

It has been found out that fake chocolates and toffees are available in more number of petty shops for the leading brands.

Strategies for Chocolate/Toffee Companies in Rural Marketing (to kill fake brands):

Product: Without compromising on quality, the leading chocolate companies can reduce their size to match the rural demand.

Pricing: As the rural consumers are bothered about economy pricing the leading chocolate companies can follow the strategy of "penetration pricing"

14

Promotion: The traditional method of promotions has to be changed by the MNCs and National Companies in attacking the fake products.  A portion of the ad budget can be allocated for retailers' margin. Through ad campaigns, the companies can also create awareness among consumers regarding the evils of fake products.

Physical Distribution: Sales professionals of the local region who have familiarity in the local (regional) language can be appointed to look after the sales of rural areas, so that they can easily converse with the retailers and can build goodwill.

Conclusion

Fake products create damage to leading companies' sales and brand image.  Fake products also create problems to consumers on their health.  Hence, the MNCs and other leading companies that are worse affected by fake brands has to prevent their footage by adopting various strategies as discussed.  The 4 P's of the marketing mix have to be redesigned by the marketers in attracting and attacking the rural markets of India.  When consumers come across such fake brands they also have to take the issue to the companies and/or legal authorities.

11) CAVIN KARE

Trends:

1. Rural markets are coming up in a big way and growing twice as fast as the urban markets.2. There are as many ‘middle income and above’ households in rural India as in urban India.3. The number of ‘middle income and above’ households in rural India is expected to grow from 80 million to 111

million by 2008. Urban India expects a growth from 46 million to 59 million. Thus, the absolute size of rural India as expected to be double than the urban market in the near future.

Rural India: A world of opportunities:

Reasons:

1. Vast size and demand base2. 72% of India resides there3. Almost half of national income is generated there

Rural marketing challenges: discovered by Cavin Kare:

1. Underdeveloped people: Tradition bound, believe in old customs, traditions and habit.2. Lack of proper physical communication facilities: expensive3. Many languages and dialects: differ from district to district4. Low per capita income: population – 72% shares 35% of gross domestic product5. Low literacy levels: low as compared to urban areas and is a difficulty in addressing the masses6. Prevalence of spurious brands and seasonal demand7. Different way of thinking: have fewer choices as compared to the urban counterpart.

CavinKare Pvt. Ltd.:

Market share:

Chick shampoo: 21. 4% share and is largest selling shampoo in U. P. and Andhra Pradesh.

Important facts:

CK associated with people of similar wavelength for whom quality comes first and has laid down all ground rules for the manufacturers and has a strong quality monitoring system.

Marketing strategy for Chic shampoo:

15

1. Direct media promotions: to build knowledge of product categories.2. Effective communication: to know the fears, aspirations and hopes of rural consumers and to know which way

appealed to them the most.3. Believe that its core competencies are R&D, brand building and distribution management.

Promotion strategy:

1. Single serve packaging2. Communication in the language of the district.

Steps towards rural marketing:

1. CK responsible for sachet revolution in India.2. Introduced itself first in Southern India – got to know that people use soap to wash hair – conducted live touch

and feel demonstrations in the villages and fairs and then gave fre samples at the fairs – conveyed that when a product exists specifically for hair, it should be used – finally people agreed that shampoo usage gave soft and silky hair.

3. Advertised in local print and T. V. 4. Chic shampoo sponsored shows of Rajnikanth.

Price:

1. Gave 1 free shampoo sachet in lieu of 5 sachets purchased.2. Sold sachets at 50 paise when competitors were selling at Rs. 2.

Distribution:

1. Created sales force that sold only sachet packs to small retailers like cigarette and paan shops.2. Placed products at post offices.3. Special gift if dealer sells more.4. Discount on bulk purchasing.

12) AKASHGANGA

This case study is about a product and service named Akashganga sold by a small, entrepreneurial business named Shree Kamadhenu Electronics Private Ltd. (SKEPL). Akashganga is for dairy farmers and it is intended to enable to them to increase their efficiency and productivity. The Indian diary industry is plagued by several problems, the major ones being low productivity of Indian cows, the delays in processing milk, low quality caused by manual handling, corruption and mismanagement, and, of course, endemic dilution of milk with water. Akashganga attempts to alleviate some of these issues.The company provides complete IT-enabled solutions that automate the milk collection process at local milk cooperatives. Its high-end system, selling for about US$3,300 (Rs 151,800), incorporates an electronic weighing system, a milk analyzer to test milk quality, a personal computer, and accounting and management software. Compared to earlier manual procedures, the AKASHGANGA system is faster, more accurate, and more transparent. That means milk can be sent on to the cooperative union for processing more quickly, reducing spoilage; farmers can see for themselves the weight and quality of their milk via a display and printed receipt, increasing their trust in the cooperative process. In addition, farmers are paid immediately, rather than sometimes days later as under manual procedures; and local cooperatives need fewer employees and have better records and reports for planning purposes. SKEPL places an emphasis on delivering quality products and services as well as responsive and efficient after-sales service. When a farmer gets milk into the collection point, it's weighed and the amount of fat measured and immediately an entry is made on the farmer's swipe card. The money can be collected immediately. This is marked contrast to the previous system where the financial calculation was done later to avoid holding up the queue of farmers ready for milking; the calculation was done by hand and was somewhat complicated. With the new system, calculation is done automatically which makes it possible to pay the farmer on the spot rather than having him wait for a couple of days. Also the potential for cheating is reduced. An entry is made electronically on the farmer's swipe card.

MARKETING OF AKASHGANGA

16

When SKEPL wanted to market this service, it ran up against the skepticism of the Indian rural people against unproven technology. This is the classiccatch-22 situation as the farmer does not trust the tool till he tries it, and is reluctant to try it till he trusts it. SKEPL got around this problem by offering free trials and delayed payment schemes stretching up to several months.The company also provided responsive and efficient after-sales service. It established a service network covering the rural areas, and typically would attend to a compliant within a few hours of receiving it. It’s important to note that the company's local presence whether for marketing, sales or service helped tremendously, since the villagers would not be disposed to make a journey to a town or city to learn about their products. The company also used a name Akashganga that Indian villagers can relate to. This helped earn the trust of the villagers. Also, Shree Kamadhenu Electronics used local people for marketing, sales, service, etc. This was a very important factor that helped the farmers relate to and trust the company. Of course, the company had a solution that was superior in terms of time, transparency, fairness, etc, and that played a big role in their success. As a result of these factors, SKEPL gained a threshold in this large market and earned respect among farmers.RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In just a few short years of operation, the AKASHGANGA brand has become quite popular in the Indian dairy industry, especially in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, where the bulk of the company’s 600 installed systems are located. The company and its founders have received wide recognition for their efforts. Moreover, the company has been consistently profitable, and has recently raised additional investment to enable it to expand more rapidly. With only a small proportion of India’s 96,000 local milk cooperatives using automated collection systems today, SKEPL’s vast potential market is scarcely tapped. The company has also recently formed a strategic alliance with ICICI Infotech Ltd, a large software consulting firm linked to ICICI Bank Limited, the second largest bank in India in terms of asset size. ICICI Infotech is in the process of developing an integrated supply chain management software system that will seamlessly connect milk societies, milk unions, and milk federations on a single technological platform, and has chosen SKEPL as its development partner. ICICI Infotech will integrate its system with AKASHGANGA’s solution at the local society level.

CONCLUSION

AKASHGANGA’s success demonstrates the potential of information technology to impact livelihoods in poor, rural communities. AKASHGANGA’s experience indicates that even illiterate or semi-literate people can adopt IT-based systems when they see tangible benefits and when the systems are deployed in purposeful, easy-to-use ways. SKEPL’s experience also indicates that providing direct benefits and expanded opportunities to poor communities in developing countries can be profitable. AKASHGANGA, in tying its future to improving the productivity of its customers, will succeed to the extent that it can help transform the fortunes of rural dairy farmers, demonstrating the synergies between business and development goals.

13) NOKIA LIFE TOOLS

Nokia will soon launch Nokia Life Tools, which it describes as “a range of agriculture, education and entertainment services designed especially for the consumers in small towns and rural areas of the emerging markets.”

Life Tools Agriculture services will provide information on seeds, fertilisers and market prices over mobile phones. Life Tools Education will teach, say, English language, help prepare for exams and offer career tips. Aimed at providing timely and relevant information customised to the user’s location and personal preferences directly on their mobile devices, Nokia Life Tools is the first step towards bridging the digital divide. Nokia Life Tools has been piloted in India and the pan-India roll out is expected by July. The experience that Nokia gains here will help the Finnish telecom major to take the service to other parts of the world.

17

Inform, Involve, Empower - Nokia's service mantra for emerging markets with Nokia Life Tools. Timely and relevant information for smaller towns and rural areas directly to mobile phones

 

Nokia announced that it plans to launch Nokia Life Tools, a range of innovative Agriculture information and Education services targeted to non-urban consumers. Designed specifically for emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools helps overcome information constraints and provides services to this next generation of mobile users. Nokia plans to launch the service, beginning in the first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic as the lead devices in India and expand across select countries in Asia and Africa later in 2009.

 

"Filling in the information gaps in agriculture and education with Nokia Life Tools, we strive to contribute towards empowering people with the right tools to help them make informed decisions in their daily lives," said Jawahar Kanjilal, Global Head of Emerging Market Services, Nokia. "Nokia Life Tools was developed to help bridge the digital divide in the emerging markets."

 

"Nokia is a global innovator with a strong pulse of local markets. Agriculture employs more than 60 percent of all workforce in India. This sector of the economy needs fresh inputs via technology for the sector to get to a 3 percent growth," said Shiv Shivakumar, Vice President, Nokia India. "Education and English language, on the other hand, are springboards for a number of small town and rural youth to move into the employment market. Nokia, through services in Agriculture and Education, will fulfil these opportunities for the Indian population."

 

Nokia has conducted a limited scale pilot in India before the end of 2008. Reuters Market Light (RML) is the content service provider collaborating with Nokia for agriculture services in the pilot, where accurate and regular information on weather, prices and availability of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and prevailing market prices for the produce are sent to the farmer. The information is customized to the farmer's location and selection of crops, and will be delivered directly to his Nokia mobile phone. By getting the latest information directly on their mobile phones, farmers can overcome uncertainty and get just the right information that they need to grow and sell their crops.

 

"Technology is changing the way farmers, their families and their surrounding communities are contributing to the economy, as well as benefiting from it. Reuters Market Light has already proven the value of customized and localized information to the farming community, with thousands of farmers having already made significant additional profits using RML," said Amit Mehra, Managing Director, Reuters Market Light. "Through our collaboration with Nokia, we hope to reach even more farmers so that they can make informed decisions that have a direct and positive impact on their productivity and yield."

 

The Education service of Nokia Life Tools aims to give students a decisive advantage by boosting their English language and local, national and international general knowledge. Language lessons, quizzes on English words and phrases, and the general knowledge information were designed - together with EnableM for the pilot - to give students an edge. In future, the Education service will also come with information on higher education and career guidance and tips, exam preparation, quizzes and access to exam results.

 

Astrology services and ringtone downloads, with content from OnMobile during the pilot phase, bring the fun element to Nokia Life Tools.

 

18

"Nokia Life Tools was developed in collaboration with the target users and the industry. The success of this initiative can be assured through regular consumer feedback to ensure that their needs are best met. More importantly, it will require a collaborative effort between Nokia, our operator partners, industry participants and information providers across the agriculture and education sectors as we connect the next billion mobile phone subscribers - many of whom will indeed hail from these developing regions," added Mr Kanjilal.

 

Nokia Life Tools services use an icon-based, graphically rich user interface that comes complete with tables and which can even display information simultaneously in two languages. Behind this rich interface, SMS is used to deliver the critical information to ensure that this service works wherever a mobile phone works, without the hassles of additional settings or the need for GPRS coverage.

 

Idea Cellular Limited is the first GSM operator in India to collaborate on Nokia Life Tools. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular Ltd says: "We at Idea, Aditya Birla Group have made significant strides in rural markets and have taken initiatives around rural telephony. We are delighted to collaborate with Nokia in this new service and enrich the life of the Indian rural consumer through these service-enabled handsets."

 

Nokia Life Tools will be available in local languages for the target audience. The pilot will be enabled on the Nokia 2600 classic and the Nokia 1680, and available in Marathi, Hindi and English. There will also be a service that sends subscribers an English word each day, explaining how it’s pronounced and what it means in the user’s native language. Each of these packages could cost between Rs 25 and Rs 50 a month.

Nokia has partnered with RML (Reuters Market Light) for the content (weather, prices and availability of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and prevailing market prices for the produce etc) and the service will be available on Idea Cellular’s selected network.

14)

Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited (STFC), India's largest player in commercial vehicle finance, was established in the year 1979. The company has a network of 479 branches and service centres.

STFC is the flagship company of the Shriram Group which has significant presence in Chit Funds, Consumer Durable Finance, Life Insurance, General Insurance , Stock Broking, Property Development, Project Engineering, Wind Energy among others.

We are one of the largest asset financing NBFCs in India with a niche presence in financing pre-owned trucks and Small Truck Owners (STOs).   STFC decided to finance the much neglected Small Truck Owner. Shriram understood the power of 'Aspiration' much before marketing based on 'Aspiration' became fashionable. Shriram started lending to the Small Truck Owner to buy new trucks. But we found a mismatch between the Aspiration and Ability. The Truck Operator was honest but the Equity at his command was not sufficient to support the credit levels required to buy a new truck.

We did not have the heart to send the Truck Operator back empty handed; we decided to fund Pre-owned Trucks. This was the most momentous decision that we made. What followed was Sheer magic. 

It is estimated that 80% of trucks in the country are in the hands of individuals

Vision

STFC was set up with the objective of offering the common man a host of products and services that would be helpful to him on his path to prosperity. Over the decades, the company has achieved significant success in

19

reaching this objective, and has created a tremendous sense of loyalty amongst its customers.

Operational efficiency, integrity and a strong focus on catering to the needs of the common man by offering him high quality and cost-effective products & services are the values driving STFC. These core values are deep-rooted within the organization and have been strongly adhered to over the decades.

STFC prides itself on a perfect understanding of the customer. Each product or service is tailor-made to perfectly suit customer needs. It is this guiding philosophy of putting people first that has brought the company closer to the grassroots, and made it the preferred choice for all the truck financing requirements amongst customers.

 In recent years, rural markets of India have acquired significance, as the overall growth of the Indian economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the

rural communities. On account of green revolution, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has emerged. Rural India with its traditional perception has grown over the years, not only in terms of income, but also in terms of thinking. The rural markets are growing at above two times faster pace than urban markets; not surprisingly, rural India accounts for 60% of the total national demand.

Today, rural market occupies a larger part of our economy and it is expected to grow at least four times the existing size. Another contributing factor for rural push was growing saturation in urban markets.

20

SHRIRAM TRANSPORT FINANCE CO. LTD

Product A basket of loan products for truck owners and truck drivers in Tamil Nadu.  

Task for the Agency

Evolve a complete communication package, which effectively

communicates the various schemes offered by STFC.

Communication Strategy

DRIVERS - Appeal to their aspirations

OWNERS - Appeal to their business sense

Make them stay through the van programme and ensure their active involvement 

Communication Delivery

Location specific delivery of the campaign

Once the creatives were ready, it was decided to deliver the campaign in two phases. In the first phase, the small

fleet owners were targeted which was followed by the campaign targeted at drivers.

In both the cases, it was decided to have very focused, target specific get-togethers with very focused

creatives to achieve maximum cost effectiveness. The entire campaign for both the target audience was

meticulously planned and executed.

Owners Campaign

An exhaustive database of fleet-owners, consisting of both current customers of Shriram, as well as competition

was used to deliver the campaign at special "Shriram Prosperity Shows" conducted in hired auditoriums in

selected towns of Tamilnadu, to which the Owners were invited

As a first step, a special 'pop-up' invitation card for the show was designed to trigger interest and was personally

delivered to the target audience. The invitation card with lucky dip nos., provided a good incentive to ensure better

participation, starting with five lucky winners chosen from the invitees who arrived in time for the show.

Everyone who attended was provided with gift kits including promotional brochures and refreshments after the lucky

dip coupon was detached from their cards.

As an audience involvement gimmick and in order to promote Shriram logo and to further refine the database,

invitees were asked to "guess the money in the briefcase" carried by a cut out of the Shriram mascot and win

exciting prizes. Everyone who filled the form got a "thank you" gift which was sent to their houses and the first three

correct entries got special prizes.

21

15) THE IMPACT OF THE UNION BUDGET 2009-10 ON THE RURAL ECONOMY

On the 6th of July 2009, the finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for this year. Among

much contradicting reviews some still believe that the budget was certainly some much needed hope for rural India.

Here’s why-

1. Rural / Inclusive Development:

The provision for the Bharat Nirman Schemes and 3 other such flagship schemes has been raised by 45%-63% more

than last year’s allocation. (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) 59% more, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen

Viduytikaran Yojana (RGGVY) 27% more and Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) 63% more).

A new scheme, Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) will be launched this year on a pilot basis for

integrated development of 1,000 villages with above 50% Scheduled Caste population.

The Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) is to be restructured as National Rural Livelihood Mission to

make it universal in application, focused in approach and time bound, for poverty eradication by 2014-15.

Rural Employment: 144% provision for more allocation. A new project is being launched for modernization of the

Employment Exchanges to enable job seekers to register on-line from anywhere and approach any employment

exchange. A national Web portal with common software will be developed in this regard.

These reforms will certainly help the rural market by creating higher income in the hands of rural consumers, thus

enhancing standard of living and generation of productive demand.

Women welfare: Stress will be laid on the formation of women Self Help Groups (SHGs). . Reach of Self Help Groups

will be widened to enrol at least 50% of all rural women as members of SHGs over the next five years.

A National Mission for Female Literacy will be launched with the aim to reduce the current level of female literacy by

half in three years. It will focus on minorities, SC, ST and other marginalized groups

Low cost Housing: The budget has also proposed to boost low-cost housing and speed up the spread of rural

housing by raising the allocation for Indira Awas Yojana by 63% to Rs 8,800 crore; a Rs 2,000-crore rural housing

fund has also been created in the National Housing Bank (NHB). A direct beneficiary of these measures would be

infrastructure companies in steel and cement sectors. 

Corporate realty layers are of the opinion that the government should opt for a public private partnership (PPP) model

for the rural housing following its success with most of the infrastructure related projects. Corporates belive that this

could turn out to be a win - win where not only do rural consumers avail of low cost housing, but this also provides a

boost to the realty sector.

SHRIRAM TRANSPORT FINANCE CO. LTD

Product A basket of loan products for truck owners and truck drivers in Tamil Nadu.  

Task for the Agency

Evolve a complete communication package, which effectively

communicates the various schemes offered by STFC.

Communication Strategy

DRIVERS - Appeal to their aspirations

OWNERS - Appeal to their business sense

Make them stay through the van programme and ensure their active involvement 

Communication Delivery

Location specific delivery of the campaign

Once the creatives were ready, it was decided to deliver the campaign in two phases. In the first phase, the small

fleet owners were targeted which was followed by the campaign targeted at drivers.

In both the cases, it was decided to have very focused, target specific get-togethers with very focused

creatives to achieve maximum cost effectiveness. The entire campaign for both the target audience was

meticulously planned and executed.

Owners Campaign

An exhaustive database of fleet-owners, consisting of both current customers of Shriram, as well as competition

was used to deliver the campaign at special "Shriram Prosperity Shows" conducted in hired auditoriums in

selected towns of Tamilnadu, to which the Owners were invited

As a first step, a special 'pop-up' invitation card for the show was designed to trigger interest and was personally

delivered to the target audience. The invitation card with lucky dip nos., provided a good incentive to ensure better

participation, starting with five lucky winners chosen from the invitees who arrived in time for the show.

Everyone who attended was provided with gift kits including promotional brochures and refreshments after the lucky

dip coupon was detached from their cards.

As an audience involvement gimmick and in order to promote Shriram logo and to further refine the database,

invitees were asked to "guess the money in the briefcase" carried by a cut out of the Shriram mascot and win

exciting prizes. Everyone who filled the form got a "thank you" gift which was sent to their houses and the first three

correct entries got special prizes.

22

Rural Health Mission: Two flagship schemes — National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Rajiv Gandhi Drinking

Water Mission — have also been provided higher plan allocations, and work on the National Food Security Act has

begun, which will directly benefit families living below poverty line in both rural and urban areas. 

Invest close to 14,000 crores to operationalise the issue of biometric smart cards to BPL families in 18 States and

Union Territories. This scheme will empower poor families by giving them freedom of choice for using health care

services from an extensive list of hospital including private hospital. An amount of Rs.350 crores, making a 40%

increase over the previous allocation is being provided in 2009-10 budgets.

Government has announced National food Security Act; to ensure that every family living below poverty line in rural or

urban area will be entitled by law to 25 Kilos of rice or wheat per month at Rs.3/-

Child Development: The Budget commits that all Integrated Child Development Services will be extended to every

child under the age of six by March, 2012.

The allocation for the Ministry of Minority Affairs has been increased by 74%. The Budget has made allocations for the

new schemes of National Fellowship for Students from minority community.

Another feature of the budget for the social security of the workers in unorganized sector is that social security

schemes for occupations like weavers, fishermen and women, toddy tapers, leather and handicraft workers, planters,

bidi workers, and rickshow puller are implemented at the earliest. Necessary financial allocations will be made for

these schemes.

2. Higher Education

Higher education is clearly the primary focus as the government has increased the plan outlay by Rs 2,000 crore, from

7,600 crore to 9,600 crore.

While this is aimed at increasing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education from the current rate of 12.4%, there

were no special incentives for the private sector to join this effort. 

A scheme for full interest subsidy on education loans for technical and professional courses for the weaker sections

during the suspension period. The budget focuses on physical access as well, with special attention given to higher

education for minorities. 

Students of weaker section will get full interest subsidy bank loans during the period of moratorium. It is estimated that

over 5 lacs students would avail of this benefit.

3. Agriculture and Agricultural inputs:

The target for agriculture credit flow has been increased from Rs. 2,87,000 crore last year to Rs. 3,25,000 crore for

2009-10. The interest subvention available for short term crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh per farmer will continue and an

additional subvention of 1% will be paid from this year to those farmers who repay such loans on schedule.

When government provides such subsidised interest rates to the farmers, the difference between the competitive rate

of interest and the subsidy is paid by the government to the bank. The current rate is 3% for farmers taking a short

term loan of up to Rs. 1 lakh. On timely payment, the subsidy will automatically be increased further by 1%.

SHRIRAM TRANSPORT FINANCE CO. LTD

Product A basket of loan products for truck owners and truck drivers in Tamil Nadu.  

Task for the Agency

Evolve a complete communication package, which effectively

communicates the various schemes offered by STFC.

Communication Strategy

DRIVERS - Appeal to their aspirations

OWNERS - Appeal to their business sense

Make them stay through the van programme and ensure their active involvement 

Communication Delivery

Location specific delivery of the campaign

Once the creatives were ready, it was decided to deliver the campaign in two phases. In the first phase, the small

fleet owners were targeted which was followed by the campaign targeted at drivers.

In both the cases, it was decided to have very focused, target specific get-togethers with very focused

creatives to achieve maximum cost effectiveness. The entire campaign for both the target audience was

meticulously planned and executed.

Owners Campaign

An exhaustive database of fleet-owners, consisting of both current customers of Shriram, as well as competition

was used to deliver the campaign at special "Shriram Prosperity Shows" conducted in hired auditoriums in

selected towns of Tamilnadu, to which the Owners were invited

As a first step, a special 'pop-up' invitation card for the show was designed to trigger interest and was personally

delivered to the target audience. The invitation card with lucky dip nos., provided a good incentive to ensure better

participation, starting with five lucky winners chosen from the invitees who arrived in time for the show.

Everyone who attended was provided with gift kits including promotional brochures and refreshments after the lucky

dip coupon was detached from their cards.

As an audience involvement gimmick and in order to promote Shriram logo and to further refine the database,

invitees were asked to "guess the money in the briefcase" carried by a cut out of the Shriram mascot and win

exciting prizes. Everyone who filled the form got a "thank you" gift which was sent to their houses and the first three

correct entries got special prizes.

23

The allocation for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) is being stepped up by 30% and that for Accelerated Irrigation

Benefit Programme by 75% over the allocation last year.

To ensure balanced application of fertilizers, the Government intends to move towards a nutrient based subsidy

regime instead of the current product pricing regime. It will lead to availability of innovative fertilizer products in the

market at reasonable prices and attract fresh investments in this sector. In due course, it is also intended to move to a

system of direct transfer of subsidy to the farmers.

The Impact:The continuing hike to the outlay for infrastructure and rural sector will help in sustaining growth. The motive behind

throwing lot of taxpayers’ money in rural sector as well as forcing banks to do the same with deposit holders’ money

may be political and populist, but the end result is positive. Because, it boosts consumption demand from rural sector

and has a cascading impact across the economy — be it demand for mobile phones, motorcycles, cars or shampoos.

The budget has allotted huge funds on infrastructure development and agriculture growth, with a view to see the target

growth of 4% coming in from the farm sector.

All of these efforts will help in sustaining growth over the long term. The 9% growth story the government has been

trumpeting, in these times of recession, can only be achieved by targeting the more insulated rural consumer and

empowering him with the power to be able sustain himself.

16) Economic recession has hit india really bad n has hit even d automobile industry equally.

Earlier the auto mobile industries Only concentrated on d urban makets thin king dat they are d major part of their sales but now d companies like m n m, Hyundai, maruti etc have realised dat rural markets r d main markets after d release of their some new models.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Ltd is planning to drive on rural markets to push its latest pick up

Mahindra Bolero

M&M vice-president (automotive sales) says dat the company plans a deeper reach in the rural markets to improve its sales.

m n m are the market leader in the pick up category with 85 per cent of the market share and their 80 per cent of the revenue in this segment comes from rural markets. they want to strengthen their rural presence to enhance der revenue portfolio. dey are increasing der dealers from existing 450 to 600 by the end of this fiscal.

The company is also focusing on providing better after sales services.

24

The company, in the last fiscal, sold 47,500 units. It grew at 5 per cent in the pick up category, whereas the industry's growth rate was 4 per cent.

In the first quarter of this fiscal when the pick up segment grew at 23 per cent, M&M achieved 26 per cent growth.

The company is also focusing on easy financing to increase sales. It has tied up with leading nationalized banks and NON-BANKING FINANCIAL COMPANIES for easy processing of auto loans.

"Nationalised banks like SBI, PNB, SBBJ, BOB comprise 30 per cent of der loan portfolio. Mahindra Finance and other NBFCs contribute 30 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. And only 7 per cent customers pay in cash.

Similarly With sales drying up in big cities due to unavailability of credit, auto manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), Hyundai Motor India and General Motors India are now looking at cash-rich rural customers to boost sales.

Last year, almost 3% of MSI’s sales came from rural areas. This year, rural customers have contributed around 10% to its sales. Executive officer of MSI said dat During these troubled times, rural areas are coming to der rescue. Last year in the period April-October dey sold 16,400 cars in villages. This year the number has shot up to 31,000.

rural areas are now contributing almost 40-50% to GM India’s sales. In the last 10 months the company has opened 100 new outlets of which 60-65 are in rural areas. sales & marketing at GM India says, dey have doubled der rural volumes in the last 10 months. Dey managed incremental volumes of around 600 units per month.”

And even Hyundai, India’s second-largest carmaker in terms of sales, is bullish on its rural marketing initiative, Ghar Ghar Ki Pehchan, which it launched earlier this year. And here is the reason why: Almost 50% of the 220 million households in rural India are potential car buyers due to the agricultural subsidies extended by the government and also due to increase in productivity of agri-based products, according to a recent survey.

To simplify things, among the people who have an opportunity to buy an automobile in the rural areas there are approximately 22 lakh Gram Panchayat members, 1.5 lakh Panchayat Samiti members and 15,000 Zila Parishad members, who according to auto companies are sitting on piles of cash.

In fact, MSI has 2,500 big dealers in rural areas and happy with their success. it now plans to increase the number to 10,000 shortly. Even Hyundai Motor India are also in talks with a financing institution with a huge branch network to extend easy financing options for the people in rural India.

And vehicles that are mostly in demand in rural areas are small cars and people carriers. For

25

instance, MSI is pushing its Alto and Omni, Hyundai is promoting the Santro and GM is banking on the Tavera, Spark and the UVA. And with other players also planning to roll out small cars, the pyramid is all set to be turned on its head soon.

17) PHILIPS

Dutch electronics giant Philips will soon launch products targeted at India’s rural population. These include a smokeless chullah (wood stove), rechargeable lantern, hand-wound rechargeable torch and a water purifier.  

The first product in the range would be a Rs 1,000 solar lantern designed in India, and will hit the market in a month or so.The company also plans to launch in the next three months a new category of wooden stoves based on renewable resources  – like a rechargeable one that will have a fan to remove the smoke and another that will work on natural air – both priced between Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000. “The upcoming products will be in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 and we have been in talks with the government over the last few months for subsidising and promoting the products,” Rakesh Sharma, senior director, strategy and business development, Philips Electronics India told Hindustan Times.

The stove (if the three-month pilot which will be run in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh succeeds) and the lantern could open a whole new market for Philips - poor rural householders and slum dwellers. Rivals in the lifestyle space say this is an audacious move to stay afloat. The company has lost market shares in categories like television and mobile handsets, though it continues to be strong in audio players, a low-tech space vacated by the large players.

The new products are something else. The stove took over two years to develop and was worked on jointly by the company and its Dutch parent. It is made of steel and a fan, which runs on battery, is fitted at the bottom. As a result, the flame, claim Philips officials, is as good as that of a gas stove.

The stove runs on wood as well as cow dung. The price for the pilot is Rs 2,500. As some rural households may find that expensive, Philips has come out with a smaller stove without the fan for Rs 1,000. This was developed along with a non-government organisation called Tara in Maharashtra. The Philips brand is displayed prominently on the body of both the models.

Meanwhile, its portfolio of lanterns is ready for areas with no electric power. These come in the price range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000. Philips has made two categories of lanterns: One, which can be charged on a solar panel; and two, which can be charged from electricity. The consumer insight here was that people feel secure when there is light around. In most rural households which do not run on electricity, people use kerosene to light their lamps and lanterns. This is unhealthy. To address this demand, Philips has come out with lanterns. These can be used at home or can even be carried to the fields.

Some years ago, Philips decided to take the health and wellness platform globally. People had started to become more health conscious and Philips quickly caught on to it. At least the stove, according to Sivaraman, flows from the same plank. The top-end stove cuts smoke emission by 95 per cent and the stripped-down stove by 75 per cent. Both reduce fuel consumption by 45 per cent. Smoke spawned by traditional stoves in rural households is known to cause respiratory problems. Philips stoves aim to reduce that risk.

That may be fine, but experts on rural markets are quick to point out that smoke also rids rural homes of pests and insects. So, it may not be perceived as such a bad thing. Also, the Philips stove offers only one burner, whereas rural homes run at least two at all times in the traditional fireplace. In order to remove the old fireplace, farmers may have to buy more than one stove. This could push up the final cost of ownership. The availability of liquefied petroleum gas in villages too is improving by the day.

Sivaraman is aware that there are problems like these. More could show up during the pilot at Guntur. The pilot will determine how many stoves can be sold at what price points and what communication would be required to the consumers. So, the final strategy will be fine-tuned only when the pilot is over. Sivaraman therefore is still not sure if it will be a "wow" product or a force multiplier for Philips.

Reaching the market

26

Still, plans are being made to sell it and the lantern in large numbers. Philips plans to be out with the stove in the market in the next festival season which starts in South India in August and the rest of the country around October. In fact, says Sivaraman, these could also be exported to parts of Africa and Asia.

Won't be a cakewalk, warn rivals. Harish Kumar, the chairman of Maharaja Appliances, a leading player in small appliances, says concept-selling in India is tough. The challenge for Philips, he says, will be to get the distribution in place. "It will need a large network to sell these products," says he.

Philips thinks it is ready for the challenge. It has its own dealers in towns with a population of more than 100,000. But if it wants to make a commercial success of its stove and lantern, it needs to reach as many of the country's 600,000 villages as possible. With its bulb and tube lights, Philips actually reaches a large number of villages. It now plans to use the same network to sell its stoves. It is thus setting up a unified Philips sale channel exclusively for the rural markets. "The stove will be the spearhead," says Krishnan.

What it means is that rural shops that stock Philips bulbs will also stock the stoves. Sales executives of Philips' wholesalers will be trained to go to the villages and demonstrate how the stove works. The company also plans to tap farmers' co-operatives to sell it. In Punjab for instance, Philips has already tied up with about 150 co-operatives to sell its bulbs, mixer-grinders and irons.

It could very well push its stove through the same channel. Another option that the company could use is selling the stove at mandis. Philips is also in talks with the renewable energy ministry to include the stove in its Village Energy Security Programme.

18) HUL

About the company

Hindustan Unilever Limited (abbreviated to HUL), formerly Hindustan Lever Limited, is India’s largest consumer products company and was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited. It is currently headquartered in Mumbai, India and its 41,000 employees are headed by Harish Manwani, the non-executive chairman of the board. HUL is the market leader in Indian products such as tea, soaps, detergents, as its products have become daily household name in India. The Anglo-DutchUnilever owns a majority stake in Hindustan Unilever Limited.

The company was renamed in late June 2007 to “Hindustan Unilever Limited” to provide the optimum balance between maintaining the heritage of the Company and the future benefits and synergies of global alignment with the corporate name of “Unilever”. This decision will be put to the Shareholders for approval in next “Annual General Meeting”. HUL is one among those companies in the country that derives huge revenues (over 50 per cent) from the rural areas.

Example of HULs rural marketing strategy:-

A unique example is Hindustan Lever’s Lifebuoy soap. In rural India, health is of paramount importance, because indisposition is very directly related to loss of income. Lifebuoy, whose core equity is health and hygiene, has for decades now been synonymous with soap in rural India.At the same time, if products have to come up the order in the rural purchase hierarchy, they have to be affordable. If rural India today accounts for about half of detergents sales, it is because HUL has developed low-cost value-for-money branded products, like Wheel. The company has also taken initiatives to create markets even for apparently premium products, by offering them in pack sizes, like sachets, whose unit prices are within the reach of rural consumers. For example, initiated in the 1980s, sachets (Rs.2, Re.1, or 50 paise) today constitute about 55% of Hindustan Lever’s shampoo sales. With media reach gradually increasing, rural consumers today, where the media has its footprints, share the same aspirations with their urban counterparts. HUL has responded to the trend with low unit price packs of even other products - Lux at Rs.5, Lifebuoy at Rs.2, Surf Excel sachet at Rs.1.50, Pond’s Talc at Rs.5, Pepsodent toothpaste at Rs. 5, Fair & Lovely Skin Cream at Rs.5, Pond’s Cold Cream at Rs.5, Brooke Bond Taaza tea at Rs.5.

HUL penetrated the rural markets in the following ways:-

27

The First major step taken by HUL to penetrate the rural market is that it evolved its distribution model. Secondly in 1998 HUL’s personal products unit initiated Project Bharat, the first and largest rural home-to-home operation to have ever been prepared by any company.

The project covered 13 million rural households by the end of 1999. Along with Operation Bharat, HUL conceptualized Project Streamline to enhance its control on the rural supply chain through a network of rural sub-stockists based in these villages. This gave the company the required competitive edge, and extended its direct reach to 37 per cent of the country’s rural population. Then HUL started Operation Harvest which was used as a medium of communication with the villagers. During these exercise, vans from HUL and its distributors did the rounds of 30,000 villages giving promotional packs, showing products ads and identifying key retail and distribution points.

The principal issue in rural development is to create income-generatingopportunities for the rural population. Such initiatives are successful and sustainable when linked with the company’s core business and is mutually beneficial to both the population for whom the programme is intended and for the company. Based on these insights, HUL launched Project Shakti in the year 2001, in keeping with the purpose of integrating business interestsnational interests.Today Hindustan Unilever Ltd has more than doubled its direct rural reach with 30,800 `Shakti’ entrepreneurs covering 1-lakh villages in 15 States at the end of 2006 through its project shakti. The next stage of Project Shakti was even more ambitious. HUL has piloted `I-Shakti’, an IT-based rural information service that provides solutions to key rural needs in the areas of agriculture, education, vocational training, health and hygiene. The project has been set up in 8 villages in Andhra Pradesh, and is functional since August 2003. with

Evolution of HULs distribution model.

To meet the ever-changing needs of the consumer, HUL has set up a distribution network that ensures availability of all their products, in all outlets, at all items. This includes, maintaining favorable trade relations, providing, innovative incentives to retailers and organizing demand generation activities among host of other things.

HUL has followed a strategy of building its distribution channels in a transitional manner; and in different successive phases of the evolution of its distribution system, has penetrated well into the rural market.

Operation Harvest

The reach of conventional media and, therefore, awareness of different products in rural markets in weak. It was also not always feasible for the distribution Stockiest to cover all these markets due to high costs involved. Yet, these markets are important since growth opportunities are high. The company decided to initiate mobile van operations in a focused manner to create both awareness and point of purchase access. Operation harvest endeavored to supplement the role of conventional media in rural India and, in the process, forge relationships and loyalty with rural consumers. Operation Harvest also involved conducting product awareness programmes on vans. There are 1.2 million urban retail outlets, and another 3.6 million shops in rural areas. Depending on their business objectives, marketer’s use varying definitions for what is rural. Whatever be the case, to extend their reach, marketers begin by ‘seeding’ the new territory, mostly through a brand awareness exercise. As HUL demonstrated with Operation Harvest, this exercise is best done through van operations. During this exercise, vans from HUL and its distributors did the rounds of 30,000 villages giving promotional packs, showing products ads and identifying key retail and distribution points.

Cinema Van Operations

The Redistribution Stockiest typically funds these. Cinema Van Operations have films and audio cassettes with song and dance sequences from popular films, also comprising advertisements of HUL products. But over a period of time, van operations (usually run by the distributor or a third party) have also been used to regularly service retailers in these smaller markets rather than only making contract with the end consumer. These successive ‘Operations’ have enabled the company far deeper penetration levels than other companies. HUL recognised early in its rural distribution initiative that market share would be created only when demand is built up through awareness, trial and consistent availability. The company literally had to build up’ the market village by village in its rural initiative. Cost-effective distribution solutions were as first attempted by HUL, and many other companies are veering around to that option today. It has been working well for HUL, so others are beginning to experiment with it.

HUL’s project Shakti

28

A woman from a SHG selected as a Shakti entrepreneur receives stocks at her doorstep from the HUL rural distributor and sells direct to consumers as well as to retailers in the village. Each Shakti entrepreneur services 6-10 villages in the population strata of 1,000-2,000 people.

A Shakti entrepreneur sets off with 4-5 chief brands from the HUL portfolio - Lifebuoy, Wheel, Pepsodent, Annapurna salt and Clinic Plus. These are the core brands that they layer it with whatever else is in demand like talcum powder or Vaseline during winters.

The Shakti model trains women from SHGs to distribute HUL products of daily consumption such as detergents, toilet soaps and shampoos - the latter’s penetration being only 30 per cent in rural areas. The women avail of micro-credit through banks. The established Shakti dealers are now selling Rs 10,000-Rs15,000 worth of products a month and making a gross profit of Rs 700-Rs1,000 a month.

Each Shakti dealer covers 6-10 villages which have a population of less 2,000. The company is creating demand for its products by having its Shakti dealers educating consumers on aspects like health and hygiene. The Shakti brand endorsers are under-privileged rural women trained to manage businesses. Shakti is a win-win initiative that creates livelihoods and a social initiative that improves the standard of life and catalyses affluence in rural India. What makes Shakti uniquely scalable and sustainable is that it contributes not only to HUL but also to the larger interests of the community.

Life Swastiya Chetana

In 2002, HLL has launched a similar large- scale direct contact, called Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana, which will cover about 5 crore people in 15,000 villages of 10 states. The project aims to generate awareness about good health-and-hygiene practices.

I-Shakti

I-Shakti kiosks have been set up in 8 villages in Andhra Pradesh, and have been functional since August 2003. The kiosks have received an overwhelming response from the local populace. During the launch of these kiosks, important village members like the sarpanch, schoolteacher and doctor are invited to help reinforce relationships with the villagers. The kiosks remain open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days of the week. To enable access to the services, users have to register themselves first and obtain the unique registration number. An id card with the registration number is provided for use every time they visit the kiosk.

The kiosks offer information chiefly in the form of audio-visuals in the following areas health and hygiene, E-Governance, education, agriculture, employment, legal services and veterinary services.

The information provided in the above areas is called from the best available resources, taking additional care to ensure that information, especially in areas like agriculture, is locally relevant and includes inputs from home-grown experts. These experts are also available on request, to help provide solutions to problems raised by users through a query mailing system. A farmer from the village can obtain a quick solution to a pest problem with his crops. People can also send queries on health and hygiene to a local doctor for a speedy response. Villagers can avail of discount coupons from the kiosk for medical treatment from doctors operating in local areas. ‘I-shakti’ has also tied up with Azim Premji Foundation to deliver innovative educational modules to students of classes VIII-XII through the kiosk. Local school teachers have also been involved in the process. A similar partnership is in place with Tata Adult Literacy for adult education.

19) State Bank of India takes no-frills ATM to rural masses

India's largest bank is turning to one of the country's smallest technology companies for a new minimalist cash machine it hopes will solve the subcontinent's chronic financial services shortage.

State Bank of India (SBI) has 10,000 branches, the second largest network in the world, but struggles to reach the farming communities that make up 70 per cent of India's population.

29

About 85 per cent of India's workers are employed in the "unorganised sector" – where wages are paid in cash – and at least half do not have a bank account. Hoping to reach the underbanked masses, SBI is trialling a new automatic teller machine (ATM) that costs a tenth of the price of conventional models and is cheap enough to deploy in areas where the average transaction is 100 rupees (£1.25).

Built around a pared-down software platform and connected to a bank via the web, the Gramateller ATM makes do without the frills found on its Indian city cousins, such as the ability to make payments to the local temple.

Instead it includes features useful for country living. A fingerprint scanner provides an identification system suitable for a country where 70 per cent of the population is illiterate. It runs on just 60 watts of electricity – a fraction of the 3,000 watts required by a conventional ATM – to cut the cost of supplying backup power in areas where blackouts are common. The new generation ATM also emits far less heat, which means unlike a traditional cash machine, it does not need to be housed in an air-conditioned closet.

Moreover, though it will only handle a single denomination of currency, the Gramateller can take deposits and deal with dirty and crumpled notes – helpful, since rural users are often suspicious that crisp new cash is forged.

The machine has been developed by Vortex, a Madras-based technology start-up funded by a 2 million rupee (£60,000) investment from Aavishkar, a specialist "micro venture capital" firm that is backed by groups including Deutsche Bank. ICICI, India's largest private bank, is also piloting the technology while one of Indonesia's largest retail banks has told Vortex it will "buy as many ATMs as the company can build" – provided the Gramateller passes its current field tests.

"Manned branches are too expensive; conventional ATMs cost too much and are not equal to the challenges of rural environments," Lakshmimarayan Kannan, of Vortex, said. "We built the Gramateller to bring banking in reach of those not covered today."

Comparisons with developed economies suggest the market for the minimalist ATM is potentially massive. In the US, where credit cards are common, there is a cash machine for every 1,000 people. In India, where cash is still king, there are only about 30,000 machines in the entire county – one for every 43,000 people – and most are densely packed into big cities.

However, the Gramateller is only one of several "branchless banking" models being tested around the world. In the Philippines, for instance, Globe Telecom customers can operate electronic accounts through mobile phones and similar systems are being used across Africa. In India ICICI already uses microfinance institutions, which specialise in granting tiny amounts of credit, as retail agents.

Against mobile-phone based systems, the Gramateller may be relatively vulnerable to thieves. However, Mr Kannan points out that it will carry only about a fifth of the amount of money found in a city ATM. "There won't be a need to have very much cash in our cash machine," he said. "Actually, there are likely to be plenty of assets around it worth more."

20) Gaon Chalo

Since 2000, the rural market has emerged into a gold mine for MNCs wanting to expand their market share. Due to rising income level, literacy rate and disposable income, the rural consumer market has been growing at twice the rate than the urban market, accounting for nearly 50% of the sales of many product categories like FMCG and consumer durables. However, despite the booming opportunities, companies, with exception to a few have not succeeded in the rural market.

To challenge the unorganized players in the rural market, Tata Tea, one of the biggest tea producers and sellers in India (and owners of the UK brand Tetley) has chalked out a unique strategy that helps the rural populace with income generation as well.

30

The rural initiative was launched in December 2005. Named Gaon Chalo, meaning “let’s go to the villages”, the initiative saw Tata Tea joining with 12 NGOs to spread its reach across rural Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, yet one of the most backward and poor state. By the end of 2006 Tata Tea added more than 20,000 retailers, including 500 new rural distributors, in 10,000 villages across UP to its distribution network. The whole problem with any rural initiative is that people think it’s unviable since a lot depends on retailers’ sincerity and integrity. There is a need for large investments and the creation of a feasible infrastructure.

The seeds of this success were sown in an obscure sales meeting held in late 2005. The growth of local tea companies in UP, despite the fact that Tata Tea and HUL were also growing, posed uncomfortable questions to the Tata Tea sales team, who contended that they were covering all big cities and much of the rural areas. Sent out to seek answers, the sales teams as well as the consultants, came back with the same answer — Tata Tea was not selling in more than 100,000 villages in UP.

That was bad news. Back then, local industry bought cheaper CTC tea from auctions and packaged it into poly-packs in backyards. CTC stands for “cut, tear, curl,” and it is an automated method of tea picking. With zero advertising, retailers pushed this product for higher margins, often Rs 40 per kg as against the Rs 20 the organised sector could offer. It had narrowed down to a price war. In the next four years, organised players eliminated the price differential and poured in freebies to regain market share in UP, key to the northern markets.

Realising that the local tea industry had resurfaced in rural areas, Tata Tea opted to reach rural consumers through NGOs. These institutions had access to people like none other. Eventually, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Dorabji Trust screened 12 names.

Agreements were signed with NGOs (Rural Dealer-1) to act as main distributors at a district level, collecting various products from Tata Tea on credit before giving them to mobile rural distributors (RD-2), also on credit, who would then visit a fixed number of villages periodically to supply tea to small rural retailers (RD-3), who in turn sold to rural consumers. RD-3s made payments to the RD-2s on subsequent visits to replenish stock, and so on up the chain. An average RD3 now earns an additional monthly income of Rs 300-1,000, while an RD2 earns Rs 5,000-7,000. Eventually, NGOs made payments and took supplies from the company.

This money makes the difference between hope and despair for many rural families. It also increases goodwill for Tata Tea, apart from increasing its penetration. The status of NGOs as facilitators of rural income has improved their image and financial position. Also, locally-earned income curbs migration to urban areas to a large extent. The unique coalition has borne fruit. According to an ACNielsen audit, Tata Tea improved its all India share from 18 per cent in January-March 2006 to 21.4 per cent in January-March 2008. In the same period, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), lost its market share from 21.2 per cent to 18.9 per cent. In UP, Tata Tea consolidated its market share from 18.1 per cent to 26.6 per cent, while HUL lost more than 6 per cent from 22.8 per cent.

A Gaon Chalo pilot is now being attempted in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The next phase is expected to see most group products (automotives, salt, consumer goods, telecom, insurance) being introduced to this permanent, exclusive distribution chain under a programme called Tata Hut.

21) Conditional Cash Transfers

India has a variety of large anti-poverty programs. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is specifically designed to assure employment to the rural poor. Several programs such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the National Rural Health Mission address the needs of schooling and rural health.Conditional Cash Transfer programs, known as CCTs, would be a useful addition and are specifically suited to address the issues arising out of a financial crisis. CCTs transfer cash to households, generally to the woman of the household, in return for minimum attendance of children at school, participation in immunization campaigns and attendance at health clinics. They are useful during a period of economic crisis in addressing multi-dimensional poverty in the short run and preventing the depletion of human development gains in the long run – with benefits for the next generation. Since the cash transfers are made directly to households, they plug leakages, ensure transparency and accountability and provide women with greater decision-making power within their households.When faced with similar conditions during the 1990s, Latin American countries like Mexico and Brazil successfully used CCTs to protect investments in the education and health of children and women. Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Pakistan also have adopted CCTs in recent years to accelerate progress on indicators related to children and women.According to the World Bank, a powerful supporter of CCTs, conditional cash transfers provide money directly to poor families via a “social contract” with the beneficiaries — for example, sending children to school regularly or bringing them to health centres. For extremely poor families, cash provides emergency assistance, while the conditionalities

31

promote longer-term investments in human capital. Conditional cash transfers also exist in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua and Zambia.

Experiments that have worked The Indian government is seriously studying the implications of introducing such programs to address India's nutritional challenges. In March 2008, "Dhanalakshmi" -- a CCT for female children with insurance cover -- was introduced on an experimental basis in 11 educationally backward blocks across Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Punjab. The program provides for cash transfers to the family of a female child on their fulfilling specific conditions: birth and registration of the child, immunization, enrollment and retention in school. If the girl remains unmarried at the age of 18, insurance cover of 100,000 rupees will be given to her. There are several state governments which have launched variations of CCT programs, providing incentives to promote the birth, survival, as education girls. For example, the Ladli scheme of the governments of Delhi and Haryana puts money in the bank at various stages and the full amount is provided to the girl when she turns 18. The Government of Delhi implements direct cash benefit schemes like widow pension, supply of free text books, Indirect in -kind transfers include free/subsidized ration, as well as free treatment in private hospitals.These variations of CCT programs in India have been prompted primarily by the desire to arrest female feticide and the alarming decline in the child sex ratio. The census figures indicate that the sex ratio in the country for children zero to six has declined from 976 in 1961 to 927 in 2001. If this trend continues, it is feared that number of girls will drastically reduce, distorting the fabric of society and leading to many social deviant patterns such as polyandry, trafficking and forced marriages, according to a government press statement.The scope of the CCTs can be expanded considerably and be used to address school attendance, immunization and nutrition of rural children belonging to the socially excluded groups such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The CCTs provide a convenient and effective tool for providing support to households hit by the financial and food crises. They protect children's education and health so that the temporary disruption of household earnings does not have a long-lasting impact on their life chances and opportunities.

Bottlenecks and solutions The implementation of CCTs requires a well-developed infrastructure to: transfer money to households without leakages; monitor continuously attendance at schools, health clinics, and immunization campaigns; and ensure that households graduate out of poverty. In the Latin American countries where CCTs were initially introduced, there exists a well-developed banking infrastructure and information technology-based monitoring mechanisms. In India, despite the impressive network of over 69,400 bank branches and an outreach of over 50 million households through the Self-Help Group Bank Linkage Programme, the challenges of financial inclusion are daunting. With an estimated 135 million households without access to banking facilities, India is second only to China in the number of people excluded from financial facilities. In fact, even as the total number of bank branches has been increasing, the number of rural bank branches has declined from 35,134 in 1991 to 30,572 in 2006. Some 73% of farm households have no access to formal credit, with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the worst hit.However, India has the largest network of post offices, with 155,516, or twice the number of bank branches. The advantage is that post offices are widely spread in rural areas and are an easy source for providing financial services. Realizing their potential, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (a demand-driven government job program guaranteeing poor households with 100 days of paid manual work in rural areas) has created a record number of 23 million accounts in post offices and banks to credit wages directly into worker accounts.Equally impressive state level initiatives are being formulated. For example, in Rajasthan there is a move to provide an extensive information technology infrastructure. Around 13,000 rural Points of Service (PoS) are to provide banking and other financial services through biometrically identified smart cards to 4.4 million rural citizens largely among the very poor. When completed, these will provide an enormous platform for the implementation of programs such as CCTs.This demonstrates that infrastructure bottlenecks are not insurmountable. CCTs are eminently feasible and in fact may turn out to be just the incentive to build social and physical infrastructure in rural areas when implemented as a complement to existing poverty alleviation programs.—K. Seeta Prabhu is senior assistant country director in India for the United Nations Development Programme - Wednesday, July 15, 2009, Wall Street Journal

22)

32

Jalihal Education Project ....

Improving the Status Of Education in 22 Villages Of Jalihal Area. Jalihal Education Project has been implemented in 22 villages in the backward area of Jat taluka in Sangli district.

The Background ....

Jalihal is one among several villages situated in the extreme eastern corner of the Sangli district of Maharashtra state, bordering the state of Karnataka. Nearly 45,000 people live in the villages surrounding 'Jalihal', an arid, forsaken corner of rural Maharashtra. Though the area is only about 145 km from the district headquarters the region is, however, politically distanced from the decision-makers, and being at the state border has only added to its woes.

The result has been that of negligence and desolation, leaving the poverty-ridden people to face a bleak future. It is not within the mainstream development process and hence has clear characteristics of an area alienated from the development process. The region being on the border of two states, unsettled border disputes between the two states (since the people are bilingual, there is dispute about whether a few of the villages are in Maharashtra or in Karnataka) encourages the officials to unofficially forget the existence of the area.

Thus, Yerala Projects Society found the need to implement educational and development programs in the region.

Jalihal 7 Years Back ....

Total environment was highly superstitious. In every village 60-70 % male were alcoholic. Women were not allowed even to come out of their house. Seasonal migration for cane cutting was only attractive alternative of earning. Education was the last priority for the families! Farmers were following only traditional farming practices. "Science" was considered just as a part of academic

subject

Problem Statement ....

In the Jalihal area the status of education is very weak. The main hurdles in maintaining good education atmosphere were :

Poverty Illiteracy Ignorance

In addition to this, situation gets worst with things such as :

Non functional Government educational machinery Lack of Infrastructure. Lack of awareness among people Faulty education methodology Lack of motivation for students.

Analysis of the Problem ....

Yerala Projects Society conducted a deep study of the area & people for about 2 years and came to the conclusion that the poverty here is because people of this area do not have :

33

Money. Information and Technology. Satsang : Company of good people .

The organisation prepared a long term plan to empower people to make them capable of "Earning" above three things.

Education : People's Perception ....

The children do not know why to go to school, their parents never felt need of sending their children to the school. The standard explanation given by the people in Jalihal area is "What is the use of education?" Why to learn reading and writing?, Without education our day-to-day life is going on, education will not make any difference in our life.

If we watch their lifestyle closely, this statement seems correct. Because there were no message boards in the villages to read, no newspapers, no one writes letters nor does anybody receive letters. They don't prepare list of grocery and they hardly purchase packed commodities. So they don't feel the necessity of education. There are just a couple of buses plying through the village, with fixed destination! So the villagers didn't need to read any boards written on the bus!

Lack of Vision : The villagers have never thought of tomorrow, due to low agriculture yield, cause by less rain, unfertile land, use of old farming techniques and no capacity of investment, these people are struggling to arrange bread for survival. They work very hard. But that is just enough to arrange the food. The financial arrangements in their family are very tight. Every one has to contribute income for the family. In the newly married family of husband and wife, only husband works, the income of the husband is sufficient to feed both. Within a couple of Years, when a child is born, both husband and wife have to work to satisfy the needs, when second child is born, the elder child has to look after the milch animals as the income from those animals is very important to maintain the financial balance of the family. Here the parents have to decide whether the child has to send to the school or he should be given the job of grazing the animals. Because of poverty, lack of awareness and vision, most of the families choose the second option. Thus the child is deprived of education.

STATUS OF EDUCATION : In these 22 villages on an average only 25 to 30 % is the occupancy of the school. In most of the villages the school attendance drastically reduces during the migration period, which is for six months! In the villages there are 29 Anganwadis and 24 primary schools run by government and private agencies the teaching and learning environment in most of the schools is pathetic.

PROJECT THRUST : As we know education is most important element for over all development of the family as well as of the area. "Quality" education is more important than just education. At present government is providing the educational facilities in the area. But there is no quality, the education is neither informative not entertaining! To fill the gap in quality education YPS has now taken up the Operation Education project in this area.

There is a vast difference in the availability of educational facilities in the rural and urban area. This gap has very much widened over the last 10 years. The rural students learn without the facilities of laboratory, equipment, proper guidance, extra coaching, also other things like exposure, quality interaction etc whereas all these are available for the students of Urban area. Obviously urban students gain more confidence. There is enough evidence to say that, the students from urban area are more successful in their life than rural students. With the introduction of computers, this gap is going to be widened in unbelievable proportion. Now it is necessary that the students from rural area should be offered opportunities to bring them in the main stream.

"Operation Education" is designed to, To flush out the present sickness in the educational system To establish a healthy atmosphere so that all the elements of the society understand the importance of Quality

Education and strive to contribute their best for maintaining it.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES : The overall goal of the programme is to "Create the right Atmosphere in the Villages Conducive to Quality Education" The specific objectives are as described under. They have been grouped into three broad sections

34

Issue framing Atmosphere creation and Service delivery

An ISSUE FRAMING To study the causes of peoples lethargy towards education. To identify and measure the extent of the problem To devise specific interventions aimed at meeting the project goals B

ATMOSPHERE CREATION To bring awareness among parents. To motivate teachers to teach better. To activate the government machinery. To initiate various programmes for school drop outs.

SERVICE DELIVERY To start parallel schooling system to impart quality education. To start Balwadis for small children at wadi / hamlets. To provide extra coaching to students for competitive examination. To provide educational aid for the children. To start libraries in nine villages. To establish science laboratories at three places. To start Sanskar Classes (value education) in all villages To train local women / girls for conducting Sanskar Classes. To arrange various competitions for school children. To arrange exposure visits for teachers. To start various educational courses in villages.

Villages Covered Under This Project: Jalihal (Bk.) Tikondi Morabadi Girgaon Pandozari Karewadi (K.B) Karewadi (Tikondi) Balgaon

Akalwadi Borgi (khu) Maniknal Bhiwargi Lawanga Gulgunjnal Aasangi Kagnari Koltyan Boblad Kanbagi Motewadi (T) Motewadi (Boblad) Lamantanda Borgi (B).

The Edu-Key Project ....

To improve the educational condition we have taken up a 4 years education improvement programme "Edu-key".

Under Edu-key we have taken up : Awareness Programmes Motivational programmes for teachers Providing village level workers Library, Youth Activities Information Dissemination Center & Science lab School, Classrooms with latest Audio-Visual teaching techniques and Internet facility. Support to local groups for stopping migration of school going children.

EXPECTED RESULTS This programme is bringing major changes in the educational environment in Jalihal area. The skills of those who are going to act as tools will be upgraded. This creating an extra interest of not only those who are teaching but also those who are learning. We expect that a very healthy atmosphere favouring education will be created in the villages.

The Results :

Average villagers understood the importance of science. Education has become meaningful. There is a sense of elevation amongst the students. Children are introduced to science and they are relating it with their daily life. Children are introduced to "Logical Thinking".

35

There has been a great improvement in the understanding of English language. Women have understood the importance of nutrition and hygiene. There has been significant decrease in superstitious beliefs. Farmers are demanding for soil and water testing facilities.

Implemented At .... Jalihal

Project Address : At : Jalihal (BK), Post : Tikondi, Taluka : Jat, District : Sangli. Maharashtra, INDIA

23) KissanNet – Ans Government Product from Tata Consultancy Service

The Rythu Bazaar (“Farmers Market”) is an innovative arrangement made by the government of Andhra Pradesh for farmers to sell agriculture products directly to the consumers without being the victim of the malpractices, vexatious middleman and other intermediaries in the supply chain. In the Rythu Bazaar concept, through price stabilization, the government ensures that member farmers sell their produce at remunerative prices while offering customers reasonable rates.

KissanNet, a comprehensive and effective online transaction management application conceptualization and development by TCS, brings Rythu Bazaars to all stakeholders including government, estate officers, revenue officials, farmers, consumers and the general public. KissanNet provides online information across geographical regions on produce volumes, storage facilities, transport arrangements, market analysis and administrative support.

Features of KissanNet:

Dynamic generation of graphs for market analysis.

Graphical representation of bazaar-by-bazaar current and projected price, consumption, demand and supply details of the commodities.

Extendibility to integrate with the public distribution systems. Native and local language support.

KissanNet Software Modules:

The KissanNet system is built for an administrative structure the operates through individual Rythu Bazaars networked with each other through a central office.

A Bazaar Level Module through which one can capture the transaction data of the farmers, commodities and essential commodities of a particular Rythu Bazaar and transfer this data to the Central Office.

A Central Module through which one can extract the data received from various bazaars, consolidate the data and generate various graphs and reports to be used by the management at the central office.

36

A Website Module through which one can create web pages of the bazaar level daily price details and sends them to the server on which the website is hosted.

Benefits of KissanNet:

Farmer: The farmer obtains a high value for his product and sells his produce at any bazaar.

Consumer: The consumer can obtain all the information pertaining to the commodities available at any of the Rythu Bazaars through the internet and procure vegetables at a cheaper price.

Government: The government will have more better and more effective control over the supply and the distribution of the commodities. It can predict demand/supply and monitor prices.

24) Yes TD

In the year 1990’s, Koshika Telecom discovered the customers in some 1,500 villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh, typically inhabited by less than 10,000 people, with three-fourth of population engaged in farming.

In each of these villages, the company set up a public call booth dubbed ‘Yes TD’. The booth owner the handset and then allowed villagers to make calls. The 17 base trans-receiving stations ranged between Gorakhpur (towards the east) and Lucknow (towards the west), including towns like Unnao, Barabanki and Bhadoi, covering a range of roughly 3,846 sq. km. each and all the villages falling within this range. This meant almost zero-cost entry into the villages.

The service became quite popular, with each village generating around 40 calls a day at Rs. 1.90 per minute (comparable to the landline call rates). Koshika Telecom realized that the key to unlock the rural markets is to localize. Once consumers got hooked to the service, the company could create higher incremental demand. Moreover, in a developing country like India where there are only 1.8 crore basic telephone lines, the cost of laying the lines will be higher than that setting up a cellular network.

Battery-operated Colour TV

Jolly Starterk Group, a north Indian regional player in consumer durables, recognizing the acute power shortage in the rural areas, launched AC/DC CTVs capable of operating on 230V AC as well as 12V DC battery. A built in charger was also incorporated to charge the battery during power availability. The product was thoroughly tested in rugged rural areas at various locations for peak performance, toughness and long term durability. Also, the product was made available at very affordable prices, between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000 for different models, that were substantially lower than the competitors prices. The product was promoted in large haats, agri mills and the feeder town markets of Uttar Pradesh. The response to the product was very good.

37