RURAL MARKETING

ITC: Rural Foray (e-Choupal, Choupal

Sagar)

&

Rural Ventures and Foray of TATA,

Reliance and Future Group

Group 2
Ishika – 21PGP090
Jayraj Agarwal - 21PGP095
Shubham Mane - 21PGP130
Ritu Parna Mandal - 21PGP193
Shalini Poddar - 21PGP217
Introduction:

Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited was the name used when ITC
was first founded in 1910. (later renamed in 1974 to ITC Limited). Before
expanding into a variety of other industries, including hotels, paper goods
and specialty papers, packaging, agriculture, packaged foods and
confectionery, branded clothes, cards, and other FMCG products, it started
in the cigarette and tobacco industry.

In 1975, the firm began operating in the hotel industry. It launched ITC
Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited, and after sometime it got merged
with ITC, into the paperboard industry in 1979. ITC created the
International Business Division in 1992 to promote the export of
agricultural commodities by leveraging its competence in agri-sourcing.
Since 2001, more brand-new product offerings have penetrated the FMCG
market. The company's products are made in several factories all around
the nation. The corporation has received praise for a number of its
initiatives, including ITC e- Choupal, ITC Choupal Sagar, and the ITC
social farm forestry programme, all of which have had positive effects on
rural living.

In 1975, the firm began operating in the hotel industry. It launched ITC
Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited, which eventually merged with ITC,
into the paperboard industry in 1979. ITC established the International
Business Division in 1992 to facilitate the export of agricultural goods by
utilising its expertise in agri-sourcing. Since 2001, more brand-new
product lines have entered the FMCG market. The company's goods are
produced in several factories located all around the nation. ITC e-
Choupal, ITC Choupal Sagar, and the ITC social farm forestry
initiatives are just a handful of the company's projects that have won
several awards for their beneficial effects on rural life.

ITC has a public image for being diversified company due to its corporate
strategy, which aims to establish a wide range of development drivers and
which is based on its core competencies of spread distribution, outstanding
brand abilities, effective supply chain management, and hospitality service
competence. The FMCG sector has about 2 million merchants across the
country, ranging from fancy outlets in major cities to tiny stores in rural
regions, making it one of the industries with the greatest distribution
networks in India.

32% of ITC's shares are now held by the British American Tobacco
Company (UK). 15% of the stock is held by foreign institutions, and 35%
by domestic financial institutions. Indian public and corporate entities hold
the remaining 13% of the shares.

Products and Brands:

FMCG Products: ITC has a wide variety of powerful brands and

dominating the Indian cigarette market. 3 of its products—Wills, Gold
Flakes and Scissors—are among some of the top Five FMCG brands in
India. The Lifestyle Retailing branch of ITC was established in 2000 by
the Wills Lifestyle chain of upscale specialty stores that sell clothing and
accessories underneath the Wills name. Through more than 1500 multi-
brand stores and exclusive retail outlet, ITC also has a clothing brand,
John Players which sells a variety of men's clothing. ITC entered the
market for branded packaged foods in 2001 and rapidly diversified its
product line to include the areas of snack, staple, and confectionery goods.
The company's goods are quickly acquiring customer traction and, in this
short time, have developed a solid market position. ITC has marketed
branded stationery and greeting cards using its paperboard and packaging
operations. The company also sells safety matches and burning incense
that it buys from small- and cottage-scale manufacturers. The FMCG
product line takes advantage of its core expertise in brand building, supply
chain management, paperboard and packaging, marketing and distribution.
 ITC FMCG Products

Hotels: One of the best hotel chains in India, ITC has 60 hotels with more
than 5200 rooms under the ITC-Welcomgroup brand. These hotels include
everything from full-service budget accommodations with the Fortune
brand to ultra-luxury "ITC Hotels" and five-star accommodations with the
WelcomHotel name. WelcomHeritage is the sub-brand for heritage
palaces, havelis, and resorts. Ten ITC-Welcomgroup hotels are presently
being marketed internationally by The Sheraton Corporation, a subsidiary
of the renowned international hospitality company Starwood Properties &
Resorts.

Paperboards and packaging: The paperboards and specialised papers

industry comprises both uncoated and coated boards, printing paper &
kraft paper, and specialty papers. The company is the one of the largest in
the nation in transforming paperboard into packaging for variety of
industries.
Agriculture: The company's major export include soyameal, rice (basmati
and non-basmati), pulses, coffee, black pepper, edible nuts, seafood
(shrimp and prawns), processed fruits, and other commodities. More than
60% of ITC's overall foreign exchange revenues come from agri-exports.
Under the well-known names Gold Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, Aqua Kings,
Aqua Bay, Aqua Feast, and Peninsular, seafood products are exported. For
its branded packaged food business, the company buys premium wheat
through the e-choupal network, which now links to more than 3.5 million
farmers and has over 6300 installations. The largest importer, supplier, and
processor of Indian leaf tobacco at the moment is ITC. In India, ITC was a
pioneer in the development of cigarette leaf tobaccos.

Hypermarkets in rural areas: ITC introduced its hypermarkets in rural

areas in 2004 under the name Choupal Saagar. Farmers can utilize it as a
marketplace where they can sell their products and shop for high-quality
products for their personal use and to be used on their farms. It essentially
deals with additional services including banking, insurance, restaurants,
and medical facilities everything under one roof, as well as soil sampling.
These retail centres will eventually become a crucial piece of
infrastructure for ITC's rural distribution channels. Ten "Choupal Saagars"
in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are
now in function, while nine more are in different stages of construction.

Future Plans:

The firm plans to invest $3.2 Bn across all of its companies during the
following five to seven years. All of the companies in the ITC portfolio are
to become market leaders thanks to the investment methods. In addition to
capital expenditures for organic development, strategic investment plans
also include capital expenditures for acquisitions both domestically and
abroad. The majority of the funds would be utilised to expand the hotel
chain in key areas, create new facilities for the food and apparel sectors,
and modernise tobacco industry technology. With the construction of an
integrated pulp and paper factory, the company would be better equipped
to maintain its dominance in the paperboards and paper industry.
Additionally, investments are planned for the creation of the Choupal
Saagar store-branded chain of rural hypermarkets and the revolutionary
ITC e-choupal rural sourcing and delivery network. The company, which
was already "water positive," turned "carbon positive" in 2005–2006, and
it is currently on track to achieve "zero solid waste disposal."

Why Rural

Introduction:

The current study's objective is to assess the FMCG sector's growing

importance in India's burgeoning rural market. Over the past fifty years,
India's Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector has begun to take
shape. Considering that it has an impact on every facet of human
existence, the FMCG industry is a fundamental element of the Indian
economy. The FMCG industry, which has enormous potential
development, includes the food and beverage, health, and personal care
industries. Currently, 34% of all FMCGs are used in rural India, but much
more than 40% of the major FMCG categories, such personal care, hot
drinks, and fabric care. In addition, rural India is increasing faster than
urban areas in 80% of the FMCG categories.

Given that the country has one of the lowest per capita product
consumption rates in the whole globe, all FMCG firms have enormous
development potential. Rural marketplaces have become more important
recently in nations like China and India because of the general expansion
of the economy and the significant rise in the purchasing power of rural
populations. The green revolution in India has increased the amount of
manufactured goods produced in industrial and urban regions that are
being consumed in rural areas. The government's decades-long
participation in rural economies through the Gram Vikas Yojna,
Sampoorna Swachchta Abhiyan, NREGA, and other initiatives, as well as
the decentralisation of authority through panchayatiraj institutions, have
created new possibilities for rural communities. All of these elements have
contributed to India's FMCG industry's attraction to the rural market. The
revitalising expansion it has undergone over the years has given this bond
new life.

Over the past fifty years, India's Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
business has started to take shape. Given that it has an impact on every
facet of human existence, the FMCG industry is a fundamental component
of the Indian economy. The FMCG industries are now benefiting from that
chance. Consumer incomes are increasing and lifestyles are transforming
in rural India. Both rural and urban regions have an equal amount of
intermediate households. As a result, the size of the rural FMCG market
has been growing over time and currently outperforms the size of the
urban market. People in rural areas are becoming more mindful of their
shopping selections like their urban counterparts due to higher levels of
literacy and media exposure. Because of the dramatic rise in their degree
of exposure and brand awareness, rural dwellers are more choosy and
demanding than ever. Businesses find it challenging to understand the
buying behaviours, consumption patterns, wants, and desires of rural
consumers as a result of the rural marketing environment.

The huge size and demand of the rural Indian market provide marketers
tremendous opportunity. Rural areas, where two thirds of Indi's customers
live, provide nearly one third of the nation's income. Consumer durables,
textiles and clothes, personal care products, and financial services are all
seen to have significant marketing potential. A marketer has entirely
different situations and challenges while advertising in a rural region as
opposed to an urban one. For the vast majority of marketers that wish to
reach rural customers, distribution is a huge barrier. For businesses to
effectively explore rural markets, infrastructure is essential. Considering
that there is no such infrastructure, the distribution issues in rural India are
getting worse. Along with these problems, FMCG companies must
additionally deal with rural markets' geographic dispersion, small size,
isolation, poor connectivity, and severe fluctuation.

Additional significant obstacles include a low literacy rate, an abundance

of languages and dialects, cultural diversity, poor financial services, fake
products, low per capita disposable incomes, an excessive reliance on
monsoon season demand, and a lack of media coverage. Therefore, the
major obstacles for marketers trying to break into rural markets are
comprehending the diverse rural consumer base, delivering goods to these
far regions, and interacting with the media-shy rural populace.

Statement of the Problem:

FMCG, which is India's fourth-largest economic sector, significantly

boosts GDP. Similar to other nations, India's FMCG sector has had
success marketing products to people with lower and moderate incomes.
Today, middle-class families account for over 70% of sales, while rural
India contributes for over 50%. A development of the rural population,
bolstered by income growth and a propensity to spend money on products
that would enhance their quality of life, fuels the industry. All companies
must seek out, interact with, and support the rural markets and the rural
consumers in order to flourish and succeed because of the decreasing
growth potential in urban markets.

For growth dependent on volume, this is crucial. Rural marketing has

become the newest marketing slogan for the majority of FMCG firms in
India as rural penetration rises. This is done to capitalise on the limitless
prospects and to implement a parallel rural marketing plan for luring in
rural consumers. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the FMCG
industry's rising prominence in India's thriving rural market.

Rural Market in India:

Rural marketplaces have become more important recently in nations like

China and India because of the general expansion of the economy and the
significant increase in the purchasing power of rural populations. The
green revolution in India has increased the amount of manufactured goods
produced in industrial and urban regions that are being consumed in rural
areas.

In this situation, a unique marketing tactic called rural marketing has

emerged. Rural India, commonly referred to as a market with "high
opportunity," is no longer simply an opportunity; it is also already
producing results. The idea of rural marketing has always had an impact
on people's lives and the Indian economy. With the exception of a few
large cities, all of India's districts and industrial townships are connected to
rural areas.

Potential of Rural Market

Rural Customer:
In India, customers from urban and rural areas are consistently divided.
Illiteracy and poverty are pervasive in rural India. Illiterate people find it
difficult to differentiate between brands and understand the plain
information on packaging. Low and erratic purchasing power is a result of
poverty and dependency on the whims of the monsoon. Since items are
frequently provided loose, branded sealed products also face intense
rivalry. Alongside highly significant authority figures like members of the
neighbourhood panchayat, caste and religious leaders, etc., ignorance and
illiteracy coexist.

Rural customers are different from their metropolitan counterparts in terms

of economics, society, and psychology, and they are undoubtedly price
concerned. Rural customers usually make few purchases as a result of their
unpredictable income and dependence on the vagaries of the monsoon.
The preponderance of FMCG firms have introduced items (such as tea,
shampoos, cookies, etc.) in smaller packs and sachets to address this
problem and win over the wallets of rural consumers. The practise of
providing shampoo in sachets for Rs. 1 and Rs. 2 is attributed to Small
Coke, Chick shampoo, and Meera shampoo sachets, which bolstered rural
sales.

Rural marketers must provide both small-quantity products and

dependable credit systems for more expensive commodities since the
people in rural regions does not grasp the concept of retaining things or
conserving large quantities of money. Encourage first-time purchases and
trials in order to get customers to try something they have never used
before. Additionally, credit must be made available to the wholesalers.
Because they have improved their lifestyles and have come to rely on
them, rural customers are purchasing lifestyle products like cosmetics,
beverages, mobile phones, etc. As a result of urbanisation, rural areas
today enjoy a better standard of living that is not geographically
constrained.
Market Size for ITC in Rural India:

The socioeconomic and behavioural elements that are prominent in India's

rural areas have a substantial influence on this market, which cannot be
seen as an autonomous entity in and of itself. 68.84% of the population of
India, or 83.3 crore people, will live in rural areas, according to predictions
(Census, 2011). The rural market contributes more to the country's overall
income since there are more consumers in rural areas of this country.
About half of the nation's income comes from the rural sector.

Growth of FMCG market in India

Agriculture, self-employment, services, construction, and other rural

sectors in India are major contributors to the GDP of the nation. The
empowerment of the rural population has been greatly aided by rising
incomes, higher levels of education and awareness, increased contact with
the outside world, significantly altered consumption patterns, emerging
lifestyles, and, most importantly, a shift in the rural population's
occupation from agriculture to manufacturing, self-employment, and
construction. The primary shift in rural areas over the past several years
has been away from relying heavily on agricultural revenue, which may or
may not be connected to the rise in food production. Rural income as a
whole now comprises a bigger proportion of non-farm income.

Factors Accountable For Upcoming Paradigms of Rural Marketing:

Increased buying power and disposable income: Governmental

programmes like the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee)
programmes and private enterprise projects have offered the rural people a
chance to satisfy their daily necessities. The agricultural sector debt waiver
and rising labour demand in metropolitan regions have helped to raise
income levels in rural communities. A new spectrum has been added as a
result of lifestyle improvement.

Market accessibility: An organised system of product distribution has been

created as a result of improvements to the road systems connecting the
settlements. Earlier, a "trickle down" of the inventories to the customers in
the inner villages was seen. Nowadays, firms reach out to villages directly
by sending delivery and advertising trucks to 8–10 haats/markets each day.

Urban market competition: With the presence of all major competitors, the
urban markets have become increasingly saturated. This is blatantly
obvious in the auto industry. Due to the greater brand proliferation in
urban markets, motorcycles and scooters frequently enjoy greater
acceptability there than in rural areas.

Risk mitigation during a recession: It has been demonstrated that

companies that serve both urban and rural customers do better during a
recession. The urban market typically displays a cyclical pattern, in
contrast to the rural market where commodity demand is steady.
Businesses must modify their strategies in accordance with a variety of
factors in order to appeal to the rural market. Hindustan Unilever Limited
established the concept of "Shakti Ammas" as a cutting-edge way of
product promotion (female social entrepreneurs). This significant change
may be evaluated using the 4 A's method (Availability, Affordability,
Acceptability and Awareness).

Availability concentrates on getting the product to customers. A fully

integrated and extensive distribution network is must for this reason, & in
rural areas, the corporation pays more for logistics than it does in
metropolitan areas. In the instance of the Shakti campaign, the Shakti
Ammas in the area are chosen on the basis on their popularity, allowing
for faster access to the items.

Affordability Pricing a product affordably means making sure it appeals to

consumers while also covering all associated costs.
Acceptability addresses the problem of how attractive features might make
the good or service more acceptable to rural consumers. To make it more
acceptable, Eveready, for instance, introduced JeevanSathi torches with
attributes like a robust design and a long lifespan.

Awareness deals with the problems of promotion of product in rural. The

advertising plan must be adjusted to the village's setting, communication
channels, and language. The most popular local haats and melas, or
festivals, may be the ideal sites to advertise. Agricultural cycles also need
to be taken into account seriously. As 72% of all households are rural,
rising income levels and increased market penetration are predicted to
increase the size of the rural FMCG market from its present level of Rs.
87,900 crore to Rs. 1,06,300 crore in 2012. Additionally, compared to
urban India, 80% of FMCG categories are rising more quickly in rural
areas.

Given that the country has one of the lowest per capita product
consumption rates in the whole world, all FMCG firms have tremendous
growth potential.

____________________________________________________________
_______________

ITC- IBD

ITC-IBD has reached India's geographically scattered rural populations

successfully & encouraged the easier flow of information to them by
reducing the intermediaries in the information flow. The power of
knowledge is serving as a catalyst for the change in farmers' lives by
helping them get higher agricultural yields and price realisation. On the
scale of reach and richness, we can observe that the entire value chain has
been moved horizontally.
e-Choupal is easily maintaining the expanding scope of richness and reach
into the items or services, which is unusual. ICT transactions need a
platform, which also has to be maintained and rules for transactions set.
ITC was therefore responsible for designing, organising, and setting the
platform's regulations. This platform stands out for its unique integration
of top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously. A top-down strategy
was used when senior management initially envisioned the new paradigm
at the strategic level. This quickly shifted, though, as the operational team
generated a lot of original concepts, to a bottom-up strategy.

The Chairman of ITC continues to provide inspiring leadership by

challenging assumptions and putting out other solutions. The project's
initial funding was based on a strong belief in the model's potential rather
than a focus on short-term financial benefit. Senior IBD executives offer
intellectual leadership to the project, conceptualise ideas, continually
improve/articulate communicate the business model/purpose, and benefit
from operational team recommendations to keep the project's scope broad.

The operational crew offers backfield experiences as creative additions to

be included into the plans while working relentlessly in the remote
hinterland to put the ideas into practise and widen the network. The project
is advancing because of a well-coordinated team effort pushed
enthusiastically by each member, who takes on different leadership roles
depending on the scenario at various points in time. Everyone feeds the
others in a way. ITC's International Business Division (ITC-IBD)
introduced Project Symphony over three years ago with the objective of
transforming the company from a commodity trading organization that
relied on speculation and price into one that is experience and
understanding and customer-focused.

In three years, the corporation planned to expand to a $1 billion business.

The division's income last year was Rs 800 crore, up from roughly Rs 300
crore three years previous. In 2001–2002, exports of agricultural goods
increased by almost 48%. ITC-IBD asserts that it has been able to greatly
increase its export income by utilising information technology along the
whole value chain, from the farm to the global customer. In a recent
interview, ITC-Chief IBD's Executive, Mr. S. Sivakumar, indicated that
their present objective is to achieve an annual revenue of Rs 2,000 crore
by 2005-06.

Here are some key insights from this interview:

Project Symphony:

Project Symphony starts by redefining the commodities sector as a service

sector with customer-based management. The e-choupal programme, a
click-and-mortar feature that serves as the back-end supply chain, is also
included. They are thinking about switching from a commodities trading
business that depended on guesswork and price to one that was
knowledge-based and client-focused.

Objectives:

Last year, the agricultural division's total revenues were close to Rs 800
crore. They want to reach the first milestone of Rs 1,000 crore by 2005–
2006 and go on to the second milestone of Rs 2,000 crore.

Competitive edge of e-choupals:

He claims that the key short-term competitive advantage of e-choupals is

twofold in nature. One has to do with the cost and quality optimization
they may achieve in their procurement and supply chain management for
their commodities organisation. It is obviously superior than the mandi
approach of procurement that we now use.
Right from the source, customers are aware of the quality of the product
they are buying. They are adept in maximising our purchases as a result.
Therefore, even if the price for farmers is higher, it is still less than ITC.
The second benefit relates to the market knowledge or information that is
readily available and, once again, benefits both farmers and ITC. For
instance, during the present season, they are observing how the monsoons
are faring, where it is raining and where it is not, as well as the state of a
crop.

More commodities under e-choupals:

Aquaculture, soybeans, wheat, and coffee are the current four commodities
they run in e-choupals. The plan is to start specialising in rice, horticulture,
spices, and other oilseeds that they will be exporting in the upcoming
years. They'll eventually begin utilising some of the other crops in
specialised fields like organic farming. They'll provide a greater selection.
The company's strategic objective is to dramatically boost agricultural
productivity and, through e-hubs, to create a farming metamarket over all
of India. This e-infrastructure may also be used to provide a unique route
for the two-way flow of a range of goods and services into and out of rural
markets, which would result in future revenue.

More agri processing units:

The tactical decision of how many units they will be processing is made
yearly. They are strategically employing third-party processing since there
is a lot of untapped computing power.
Instead of constructing additional processing facilities, which would only
further stifle capital and capacity, they frequently hire capabilities. They
presently manage 26 different facilities for a variety of commodities
throughout 14 States as a consequence. Undoubtedly, the number of units
must increase as the organisation does.

Future of agri exports:

India's agricultural exports are going through what is known as the "classic
lemon's challenge." In other words, a market vendor offers both excellent
and terrible lemons to a customer.
The consumer is unable to select or identify anything, therefore they must
bid for the entire basket. Thus, in order to reduce risk, a buyer would
usually make an offer that is lower than the going rate. The seller returns
the next time with a basket of inferior lemons since there is no motivation
for them to be of higher quality and because it is likely that the customer
would make a lower offer. This awful loop keeps on.

In India, there are agricultural goods of extremely high grade, ordinary

quality, and very low quality. Additionally, they have good exporters,
mediocre exporters, and shady entrepreneurs. Due to its erratic processing
capabilities, India has a reputation for creating things of poor quality and
exporting goods of fluctuating quality. Indian goods are often priced lower
as a result. Except for a few particular products, most general Indian goods
may be found on the international market at a discount. As a result, the
Indian exporter is unmotivated to improve the quality. Since efforts to
enhance quality are failing, price reductions are becoming more prevalent
on the worldwide market.

Since many nations are boosting their agricultural output, the future of ITC
is not particularly promising if it continues to operate in the current
manner. That is the context for their "symphony" idea, where they analyse
the unique consumer requirements before creating and supplying such
kinds of products. Customers are prepared to pay the proper price even if
the overall market is offering a discount or is hampered by dependability
issues.

Future plans of ITC-IBD:

One is giving serving customers of all sorts in domestic and international

markets a lot of thought. ITC will consider a range of requirements from
international customers, including their own preferred packaging,
preferred shipment date, and other logistical concerns.
Providing for customer desires includes meeting specialised quality
criteria, such as those for organic farming and foods cultivated under
certain conditions.

The second factor relates to assisting ITC's food industry. ITC would
provide a sourcing advantage through its e-choupals so they could gain a
financially advantageous and quality-focused supply chain that acts as the
backbone of the food sector in terms of the delivery of raw materials.

____________________________________________________________
_______________

E Choupal

Introduction

India has the second-highest population in whole world. Most of its

citizens live in villages and rely on farming for their living. The foundation
of the Indian economy is agriculture. It makes up around 26% of the entire
GDP. Most of India's 600,000 villages are home to its 65% population.
Since most villagers work in agriculture or industries connected to
agriculture, agriculture serves as their primary source of income. The
production of practically every product, from cash crops to food grains,
has been made feasible by the presence of varied agroclimatic zones and a
range of soil and agro-climatic conditions. About 65% of the working
force makes their living from agriculture, which also makes up 8.56 % of
India's exports.
 Conventional value chain

Background

Indian farmers depend on the Agriculture Department for a variety of

inputs, including weather data, contemporary, scientific agricultural
practises, and insurance coverage. All of this data was gathered by the
VLW of the Department of Agriculture from a variety of sources,
including government universities, the meteorology department, insurance
firms, etc. Farmers purchase their seeds, fertiliser, and other inputs from
distributors who deal directly with the producers. These retailers sell the
goods to farmers. All through the year, farmers carry their product to
Mandis (regional market yards), where the beans are auctioned off to
buyers from the retail and processing sectors utilising an open outcry
system. In order to promote fair price awareness and allow for the
aggregation of products, the government should regulate these market
yards.

Once at the processing facilities, the beans will then bagged by successful
bidders, weigh them, and pay the farmers in cash (to whom it would have
been sold through a broker). As shown in Fig. 1, a number of
intermediaries carry out the entire procedure, each of whom serves as a
primary with the following link in the transaction chain. Even if farmers
earn the lowest price and margin along the whole value chain, the cost of
food increases for the processor as each intermediary adds their profit
margin to the cost. Furthermore, intermediaries prevent farmers from
getting market knowledge and instead use it to their own advantage.

The advantages of their effort go to the middlemen rather than the

impoverished farmers in this situation, who are under extreme pressure.
ITC's International Business Division launched a new project called e-
choupal.

About ITC-Inter Business

One of India's major enterprises, ITC Limited has a $2 billion yearly

revenue from its diverse commercial operations, including tobacco, hotels,
paperboard, food and apparel retail, and commodities export. ITC's
International Business Division (IBD), which was established in 1990,
exports a variety of agricultural products. It produces more than 60% of
the whole foreign exchange revenue of ITC Group. ITC-IBD is committed
to improving its key capabilities in a few commodities.

Agri-commodities such soy meal, rapeseed meal, lentils, coffee, black

pepper, edible nuts like sesame seeds and HPS groundnuts, and marine
products like shrimp and prawns are still offered by IBD. Pulses, wheat
and wheat derivatives, and rice (basmati and non-basmati) are examples of
foodgrains. ITC IBD's main export is soybean meal, a high-protein food
source. It is marketed to mills that produce animal feed all over the world,
where it is in direct competition with goods from other international trade
companies, primarily those from the USA, Brazil, and Argentina.

E choupal concept:

The Hindi term "e-choupal" means "village gathering place." Markets are
gathering places for merchants and buyers to do business. Farmers may
deal with processors directly on e-choupal, a virtual marketplace, to get a
better price for their crop. Although e-choupal offers a wide range of
sellers and clients, it still has the benefits of the market. Participation in the
e-choupal is not restricted by distance from other participants.

Since there is a fundamental information imbalance in the traditional

market, e-choupal shows the transparent transactions in contrast. Smaller
and larger players may both participate thanks to this. Due to the removal
of some intermediary layers, the lower end of the value chain may earn a
larger portion of profits. A hierarchy of middlemen is unnecessary thanks
to E-key Choupal's capacity to connect large producers, small producers,
and large consumers.

Using the present intermediaries, produce is still physically brought to the

processor. E-choupal does not seek to fully eradicate intermediaries since
they are vital in an economy like India where they provide value at a low
cost at every level of the value chain. Intermediaries offer expertise in
quality assessment, counter party risk reduction, storage, and shipping that
is difficult to match. Farmer's transformation to a market-oriented attitude
is facilitated by the availability of all market information via e-Choupal.

Idea initiation

The new business strategy was largely motivated by these business

concerns in order to compete with competitive international trading
conglomerates in a low margin agri-commodity industry, operate from a
high cost economy like India, and seek out alternate markets during a
crisis. Aside from this, ITC was working harder than ever to make its
activities more customer-centric and to incorporate a service aspect. In
India, the use of services in the commodities market has never been
attempted. ITC intended to introduce additional types, quantities,
packaging, and non-standard orders using the new approach. ITC is the
biggest exporter of soy beans. Markets in the neighbourhood used to be the
primary places to buy soybeans. As a result, there were issues with low-
quality products, the need to manage a large variety, and expensive
intermediation. The Indian market's institutional, social, and physical
infrastructure are all underdeveloped, and intermediaries cover these holes
while also bringing value to each link in the chain. ITC was looking for a
solution that makes use of the benefits of intermediaries while retaining
some of those benefits.

Business Model: E coupal

The e-Choupal business model was developed predominantly to address

the difficulties presented by the a set of unique characteristics of
agriculture in India, which are described by dispersed farms, a lack of infra
and the active participation of a number of middlemen, who prevent
crucial flow of information from reaching the farmers and use that
information to obtain a fairly sizable profit margin for themself. The
middlemen benefited from the interconnection between both the
economies of information and the physical products.

Farmers continue to live in poverty as a result of not receiving a fair price

for their products. However, e-Choupal brings order back into the system
because it streamlines the information flow to farmers by getting rid of
middlemen from the information chian flow while also taking advantage
of their physical transmission capabilities by providing critical value at
every link for a low price in a setting with limited infrastructure. The e-
choupal’s structure is shown in Fig.

Fig . E choupal: New business Model

E-Choupal, a cutting-edge click-and-mortar initiative from the ITC, is an

ICT platform for doing commerce everywhere. By using Sanchalak, a lead
farmer who acts as a go-between for the farmer and the computer, ITC
creates a backup physical service support system, or Choupal, at the
village level. The Meteorological Department, Agri-universities, mandis
(regional markets), and other sources provide ITC with information on
weather, modern agricultural techniques, and market prices, which it then
publishes to the e-Choupal website. Sanchalak's residence has an ITC-
installed computer that offers all the information in the local tongue while
being tailored to the requirements of the nearby farmers.

Sanchalak has access to this data and makes it easier for farmers to use it.
Farmers may choose the best crop and increase the production of their
fields with the use of information about weather and scientific farming.
Farmers might become more market-oriented by having access to market
information. Since they are aware of both the price ITC is quoting and the
price that is now in effect in the local market, they may assist farmers in
realising better prices. If a farmer decides to sell to ITC, Sanchalak
represents small farmers when they sell their products to ITC. As depicted
in Fig., Sanchalak also collects farmers' requests for input purchases for a
range of goods, such as seeds and pesticides, and submits them online to
suppliers. This facilitates the delivery of high-quality farm inputs and the
purchase of agricultural goods at farmers' doorsteps with the aid of
middlemen.

It is clear that e-Choupal enhanced the current supply chain significantly

via the creative use of information technology. By eliminating the
middlemen in the information flow, ITC-IBD has effectively reached
India's widely dispersed rural communities and promoted the easy flow of
information to them. The power of knowledge is serving as a catalyst for
the change in farmers' lives by helping them get higher agricultural yields
and price realisation. On the scale of reach and richness, we can observe
that the entire value chain has been moved horizontally. e-Choupal is
easily maintaining the expanding scope of reach and richness into the
items or services, which is unusual.

E-Choupal is indeed an ICT system that facilitates online market

transactions and facilitates the flow of knowledge and inform.

 It communicates information (weather, prices, news).

 Knowledge (risk management, agricultural management) is

transferred.

 It makes farm input sales easier (screened for quality).

  The farmer is given the option of a different output-marketing route
just outside his door (convenience, cheaper transaction costs).

 It is a network of partnerships that brings the "best-in-class"

information, expertise, and inputs (ITC, Met Dept, Universities,
Input Cos, Sanyojaks, the former Commission Agents).

Thus, e-choupal is a transaction platform which is distributed that connects

vendors, buyers, information and service providers, as well as
intermediaries. The model e-choupal has a variety of unusual qualities,
including:

 Customer focused

 Ability can be utilised for different commodities and transactions

 After being confirmed, it is easily scaleable

 Leverages local talent, cultivates locals, and creates local leaders

 Can be expanded to include both domestic and international buyers

 Encourages small business owners to be more inventive

 Use all of the legal and institutional structures already in place

 Since transaction times are short, many more people can enter the
market

Evolution of the ICT Platform

e-choupal progressively expanded as a transaction platform and kept

getting better thanks to learning. Knowledge management, which allowed
activities and ideas from other locations to be constantly incorporated into
the system, was one of the essential components of e-choupal. Most of the
challenges involved in putting up and maintaining these "e-choupals" are
due to insufficient power supply including infrastructure, bandwidth &
telecom access.

To address the issues with the absence of telecom and electrical access in
the villages, a number of unconventional and creative solutions, some of
them expensive, are being implemented. Power backup using solar-
powered batteries, updating BSNL exchanges, installing VSAT
equipment, installing Mobile Choupals & local caching of static
information on websites to stream in content more effectively, providing a
helpdesk which is available 24x7, etc. are some of the other measures
taken. In remote and inaccessible rural parts of India, tranfering skills to
new internet users was a significant difficulty in addition to technological
shortcomings.

The main challenge was developing a local language portal that offered
farmers the necessary data, including local weather, market pricing, and
best practises. The model included content generation as a significant
component. The development of a B2B website helped to achieve this aim
since it connected the transactions with the backend ERP and made sure
that there wasn’t any delay in the processing of any purchases by the
processing units. At this point, personalising material for the diverse and
dispersed farmer groups was a major difficulty.

Technology and operational protocols advanced at the operational level.

The study has already discovered that there are no pre-packaged
technological solutions that can be used in rural India. Modern technology
must be localised to overcome the barriers posed by India's rural areas'
inadequate infrastructure and digital divide. As a result, the following
technological advancements were anticipated, and they eventually formed
the main components of the ICT platform:

 Utilizing UPS and renewable energy sources to manage the whims

of local power availability, more specifically, non-availability
  In order to accommodate novice computer users, user interfaces
should be as iconic and simple to use as feasible in the local
language.

 Since the Internet serves as the main backbone of e-choupal,

connection options such as VSAT or wireless are needed to link the
last mile.

 Using smart card technology, choupal users may be uniquely

identified and get customised material depending on their
preferences.

Given the lack of service facilities and the restricted skill sets, it was
difficult to tailor any of them. They were able to transform e-choupal into
an E-hub that could be utilised for numerous commodities and many
inputs thanks to meticulous planning. E-choupal is a growing platform
whose reach expands with time. The "echoupal" allows other operators,
such as input suppliers and rural distributors, to distribute and purchase
commodities from each member village efficiently. Direct inputs into
purchasers and distributors of rural produce, connectivity with their ERP
systems and backend systems, and a live Meta market without any built-in
inefficiencies would assist this.

A secure, integrated farmers database with all information relevant to their

holdings and credit worthiness will be available online as part of the
technological strategy to support this phase. The "e-choupal" will be able
to support online transactions with the help of this database and the
identification provided by smart cards. This integration with participating
financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, and credit agencies
will support farmer interactions with buyers and distributors.

E-choupal was initially developed as an experimental business concept

because nobody has ever used one in India previously. Therefore, it was
essential that the corporation itself experimented with different ideas and
acquired expertise about the rural market. The implementation is known
for its "logical experimentation," also known as "Roll Out, Fix It, and
Scale Up" internally. Since there are no precedents or textbooks, this
method was chosen since there are numerous lessons that can only be
learned by application. The platform enabled scaling and distributed
operation as intended.

E-choupal had been implemented in a number of states, including MP, AP,

Karnataka, and UP, as well as for a variety of commodities, including
wheat, soyabean, coffee, etc. ITC first introduces e-choupal in a state at
the pilot stage, which entails 50 to 100 e-choupals. The startup aspires for
a critical mass size of 300 e-choupals if the initial stage is a success. In the
saturation stage, there are over 1500 e-choupals.

Table 1: Stages in product lifecycle

Each commodity's e-choupals are designed to specifically address the

operational needs of that particular enterprise.

Users of the Platform and the Benefits Derived

 Greater engagement with farmers, the requirement for cultural

sensitivity and an openness to developing ideas from normal
everyday interactions with Sanchalak and villages, as well as
collaborative effort between companies and inside the company as
opposed to the old competitive approach. ß Employee had to
comprehend the actions of the community.
  To make it simple to communicate with the locals and comprehend
their difficulties, the employee needed to be literate in their
language. To complete the project's goal, the employee must be
willing to go to the most remote locations.

Traditional and hierarchical management methods had to be learned

again, & leaders had to embrace a whole new strategy for fostering
dispersed leadership inside the company. It was crucial that strong
communication and cooperation grow between Sanchalak and the
workers in the hinterland. In order to foster the development of these
fresh skill sets, ITC has been running a number of employee- and
Sanchalak-focused initiatives and events:

1. Workshops on managing farmer relationships for field

teams

2. A senior executive team outbound training course

including a style of leadership assessment session to
enhance collaborative managerial skills

3. Holding strategy sessions to consistently generate ideas

and communicate goals

4. Sanchalaks' entrepreneurial development and quality

control training programmes

5. Establishing trust among the participating farmers, as this

is the only component that may integrative orientation
business partnerships.

Local Leadership Development

The goal of e-Choupal was to be accomplished via the use of technology,

hence the Internet was employed as the primary component for project
execution. The main obstacle, however, was the recipients' illiteracy and
the absence of cellular access in remote regions. The second issue still
exists even if the first issue is resolved by setting up a VSAT connection.
It was unreasonable and unpractical to believe that farmers would be able
to access the internet and utilise the e-services. choupal's Therefore, it was
essential that e-choupal establish its own hub in the villages with its agent,
Sanchalak, in charge of all the operations and acting as a go-between for
ITC and farmers.

It was crucial that the point of contact between farmers and the corporation
come from inside the village community rather than someone from outside
in order to increase confidence among the farmers toward the actions of
ITC. When ITC's rivals adopt this strategy in the future, their success will
rely on Sanchalak's efforts to instil a feeling of trust and community
among the villages. Sanchalak is recognised by residents of the village.
Sanchalak was chosen based on their level of education, age, number of
children in the family, caste, political ancestry, and other affiliations.
Sanchalak is required to take a public oath in which he vows to carry out
his duties impartially, completely honestly, and with unwavering
dedication. It helps him feel accountable for his actions and those of the
town.

Sanchalak explains to farmers the many benefits that e-choupal might

offer in order to get them to join. ITC workers are always on hand to help
him throughout this period. In Sanchalak's home, a kiosk with Internet
access has been installed. For him to carry out his duty properly and
efficiently, ITC personnel teach him how to use the computer and the
Internet. Sanchalak searches the e-choupal website to give farmers the
most recent weather predictions, market pricing, and productivity-boosting
tips. Sanchalak serves as an aggregator for small farmers' product that is to
be sold to ITC and also gathers farmers' orders for inputs that are to be
placed directly with manufacturers.

Sanchalak receives a transaction-based income stream in exchange. Some

Sanchalaks derive around Rs. 100,000 in income only from their e-choupal
businesses. At the Sachalaks gathering, prizes are also presented to the
best Sanchalaks. This motivates other Sanchalaks to work hard and
productively. In supplement of being a low-cost option, e-delivery
Choupal's method is successful since the sanchalak originates from inside
the community; as a result, motivation becomes intrinsic. The decision to
choose and embrace Sanchalak is the most important factor in this
situation. The ITC employed a transparent process and is guided by
performance standards.

Encouraging Local Participation

The market-driven business boosts competition and sets off a positive

feedback loop that results in increased quality, productivity, and revenue
as well as increased capacity for managing farmer risk. The vicious cycle
that affects Indian agriculture is being reversed here. Additionally, a rise in
rural incomes would also awaken latent demand of industrial goods, which
are essential for the Indian economy's continuing expansion. This will start
yet another positive cycle that will drive the economy's growth. It is
crucial to secure the rural community's engagement in order to achieve
these aims. ITC develops website material with feedback from farmers.

Farmers' participation in the production of the material makes it simpler to

adapt the information to meet local needs. Farmers at ITC lead focus group
discussions to determine the data that village farmers need. Website
design, informational language, and content all depend on input from
farmers. Participation of local farmers guarantees that e-choupal receives
appropriate and understandable information that may be used in farming or
food pricing.

The development of a win-win scenario, where the business and the farmer
gain equally, is what has led to the rising involvement in e-choupal. The
farmer is drawn to e-choupal by its potential for higher revenues, more
services, time savings, and versatility in terms of transactions. The e-
choupal programme has been effective. The cost of material handling,
transit, and procurement has all decreased as a result.
 Conventional transaction vs e-choupal costs

The effort has so far cost Rs 50 mn. However, ITC has accumulated a
profit of Rs 20 Mn, which is equal to the complete 40% investment of the
e-choupals. This obtained through the purchase of 60,000 tonnes of
soybeans.

If the competition adopts any of the new business practises, the benchmark
costs will drop, which would result in a steady decline in net savings. After
accounting for this decline in savings and investments in raising the
number of choupals, the anticipated revenue streams have been
established.

For the distribution in rural company, which had showed promise of even
greater margins which were based on sales done on a initial scale during
the current year, the entire platform is also practically free to use. The
aforementioned IRR estimates do not account for this revenue.
Additionally, market share of ITC in the soybean processing sector
climbed from 8% - 12% in a year, narrowing the gap with the market
leader (20%). Prior to the introduction of echoupal, its market share
remained stable at 8% during the preceding five years.

Even though they are currently few in number, special transactions on the
side of completed goods, are assisting in luring niche clients. Given the
demand from certain markets for GMO-free and natural goods, niche soy
industry sales might especially relating to 10% more revenue than typical
gross trade margin of about 4%. Above all, the experience and
understanding sale of agriculture products has contributed to an increase in
farm yields from over 10%. This has improved farmer’s loyalty to ITC,
however it illustrated the potential of the new business model to be a
distinctive rural distribution channel with relatively speaking unlimited
scope on the other.

Critical Success Factors

The e-Choupal example demonstrates how ICT platforms may assist rural
e-commerce and offer connection. If these platforms are developed for the
unique requirements of the community and company, they offer
tremendous potential. Following are some of the factors that made the e-
choupal function effectively:

 Complete knowledge of Rural: Rural market is social and economic

networks, and there is a close relationship between how social and
economic transactions function. Before the systems are
conceptualised, it is essential to understand the operations. Utilizing
the local community as max as possible assisted the network in
gaining widespread acceptability.

 Designing a Win-Win transaction model: e-choupal’s success is a

result of the fact that both the farmer and the processor gain from the
removal of middlemen and from the prompt availability of
information.
  Leveraging the logistics channels: Rural markets are using their
existing logistics, but they are not able to take advantage of the
knowledge asymmetry. In that regard, e-choupal makes advantage of
the existing local institutions while doing away with the information
imbalalance.

 Selection of Sanchalak: The effectiveness of e-choupal depends

heavily on both the choice of Sanchalak and his or her approval by
the community. ITC created the process for choosing Sanchalaks
through a process of trial and error. Sanchalak is the platform's
maintenance interface, according to platform jargon. The Sanchalak
is the e-choupal for the farmer. The key factor in the farmers'
acceptance of the Sanchalak has been his training and sensitization
for the vital job. Sanchalak serves as both a representative of the
agricultural community and the coordinator of the knowledge
community.

 Evolving the appropriate UI: The tech interface in rural regions must
be relatively straightforward. It is necessary to test the interface in
rural areas before putting it to use. It is necessary to try, test, and
validate it after first understanding the user pattern. Farmers, for
instance, do not get the idea of insurance. A straightforward
interface design that even a farmer can grasp was developed by e-
Choupal.

 Bottom-up model for entrepreneurship: E-Choupal stimulates local

entrepreneurship while also fostering a tremendous amount of
inventiveness at the local level. Sanchalak and the farmer are free to
utilise and create additional applications for the e-choupal. Rural
India's creative energy is liberated through e-choupal.

Replicating The Experience

In rural India, the idea of e-choupal is applicable to all agricultural and

related activities. India's agriculture shares a same fundamental structure,
yet the value chains of its many commodities each have their own complex
dynamics. The socioeconomic traits of many areas are similar. When e-
choupal is put into action, these complications must be taken into account.
As a result, the supply chain's efficiency and revenue models differ among
commodities and regions. ITC has designated e-choupal as its primary
corporate effort and is investing heavily in it.

After passing the pilot stage this season, the e-choupal initiative is now
getting scaled up for usage in other Indian states for industries including
aquaculture, coffee and wheat. For instance, in the case of wheat, the
industry's transformation will be driven by e-capacity choupal's to close
the gap between the ways in which wheat is purchased, processed, and
ultimately purchased by consumers, ensuring the consistency of quality in
various forms of Atta. Simply said, given the system under which wheat is
now marketed, this was either not feasible or was too expensive.

In addition to its initial use in the purchase of agricultural products, e-

choupal is progressively being evaluated for its efficacy in the delivery of
a variety of goods and services to those rural areas. This business strategy
has created a brand-new, more efficient channel for the marketing and
delivery of a variety of products and services into rural India. Aside from
agriculture supplies like pesticides, seeds, and fertilisers, echoupal is also
being tried for new services like selling consumer products like household
appliances. It would not only make it easier for consumers and insurance
companies to enter the intricate and underserved rural Indian markets, but
it would also raise people's standards of living at the same time.

Farmers and villagers would give orders to Sanchalak or a village

middleman for all of the aforementioned goods. He would combine the
orders into one large order and place this order with the provider of
products or services directly through network. The hamlet would receive
direct delivery of all goods and services. Numerous additional participants
are thinking about developing portals, setting up kiosks, and operating a
business model similar to e-choupal after seeing its popularity and
enormous potential for creating an electronic market. With 15 villages,
Ruchi, the biggest exporter of soyabeans, has started. The Tata group has
also entered the fray with its own initiatives, and that too through a dual
foray, one by the Rallis Inida & other by Tata Chemicals.
There are almost 200 Kisan Kendras operated by each of these Tata Group
entities in diverse villages. Prior to its establishment, Tata Kisan Kendras
(TKK) enlisted the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) to use their
satellite imaging service for "precision farming." The programme uses
satellite mapping and information technology to advise farms on adopting
farming practises that enhance agricultural production. The TKKs will
evaluate the data and superimpose it on the digital picture of the village
maps after receiving satellite photographs of soil patterns and crop
distribution from NRSA.

Insiders believe that there are ambitions to participate in contract farming

for Basmati rice in the northern regions, wheat in Madhya Pradesh, and
vegetables and fruits in Andhra Pradesh. To encourage pomegranate
producers, Tata Company has recently started to offer farm management
services in Chitradurga, Karnataka.

E choupal challenges:

E-choupal does little to address the more basic issue of the inherent
inefficiencies brought on by so many small farms, even while it aids in
cutting out the middleman and so enables farmers to earn a better price for
the produce they generate. It also depends on infrastructure, which is
sometimes deficient in rural areas. In some of the locations where e
choupal has been deployed, the availability of electricity and
telecommunications services is not always 100 percent guaranteed. The
sanchalak (coordinator) in each village can still be just as successful as
before, even when there is no longer a middleman.

The e-choupal computer can’t always be accessible when information is

required since the power is often only available for a few hours each day at
on an erratic basis. Phase imbalances cause equipment damage. There is a
lack of telecommunications infrastructure in communities. Limited battery
backup is also available at telephone exchanges. Additionally, no local
support personnel are available to maintain or troubleshoot telephone
exchanges.

Additionally understaffed is the support crew. Other issues include the

lack of computer literacy in rural areas and the low level of confidence in
electronic systems among the rural people. choosing a mature, trustworthy,
educated, and intelligent Sanchalak. incorrect market knowledge for the
remote area. Intermediaries' vicious circles. E-choupal has a poor and
complicated user interface. absence of laws and norms governing
electronic choupal.

____________________________________________________________
_______________

Choupal Sagar

As a result of the success of its model mall in a Madhya Pradesh hamlet,

the giant tobacco-to-hotels company ITC plans to construct other
hypermarts for rural India to replace ageing kirana or retail stores. The
hypermarket in Madhya Pradesh, known as ITC's Choupal Sagar, is linked
to the business' e-choupal network. According to company representatives,
30 additional Choupal Sagar hypermarts might be opened within the
following 18 months. The price tag for each of these hypermarts, which
would offer everything from tractors to needles and fertiliser to hair oil, is
around Rs 50 million ($1.14 million).

More than 5,000 e-choupals & 3 Mn people in 31,000 villages are

included in the ITC's e-choupal network. A farmer using the e-choupal to
sell his products may use the same network to purchase anything he
desires. In MP, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and AP,
ITC operates e-choupal networks. Its Choupal Sagars are retail malls that
also serve as centres for agricultural assistance. They offer instruction,
financial guidance, agricultural know-how, and even services like banking.
 Choupal Sagar

Gameplan:

All roads in Madhya Pradesh lead to potholes. Nevertheless, a number of

top business leaders from both FMCG and durable goods industries have
been travelling the jarring, 40-plus-kilometer route from Bhopal to Sehore.
Just before the settlement of Rafiqganj, some further four or so kilometres
outside of the town, is a long, squat structure that resembles a hangar and
is recently painted. This cream, blue, and green building is the centre of
attention.

Yogi Deveshwar, the chairman of ITC, had made a pledge to his

shareholders that the business will build 1,000 rural malls around India.
This is the first to have been raised. One of the first planned retail ventures
into the countryside is Chaupal Sagar. On August 15, a soft launch took
place. Rafiqganj was empty when BW arrived; only the mall was open.
However, the remaining infrastructure wasn't supposed to be finished until
the first or second week of October. The lofty ceiling is the first thing you
see when you enter the building. This is due to the fact that the structure is
really a sizable warehouse used to store the farm products that ITC
purchases through its e-chaupals. In one area of this warehouse, the mall
has sprung.

As you look about, it becomes apparent that Chaupal Sagar cannot be

categorised under any of the well-known shopping categories. It is too tiny
to qualify as a mall at 7,000 square feet. While choosing self-service, it
offers a variety of goods that no supermarket can, placing its goods on
shelves bordering the orderly aisles. It sells practically everything,
including hair oils, mixer-grinders, water pumps, toothpaste, televisions,
clothes, and fertiliser. It resists classification. Simply said, it's a country
store that was well considered.
It sells a large number of national brands. Marico, LG, Philips, Eveready
flashlights, ITC's apparel division shirts, TVS motorcycles, and Eicher
tractors are all visible. Later, we shall examine this aspect of the equation
in more depth. ITC is making a very strong offer to these businesses. Let's
first take a look at how the location next to the warehouse came to be. This
is how it functions. ITC notifies farmers of the most recent commodity
prices through its network of e-chaupals through the Internet or VSAT
lines. If they think they are appealing, they offer ITC their product. Hear
Rajesh Nigodia out.

He is the current sanchalak (one who runs an e-chaupal; most are farmers)
of Mangawali, a little village 14 kilometres distant from Rafiqganj.
According to him, hardly half of the farmers in his community work with
ITC. ITC is currently attempting to monetize farmer traffic by constructing
the mall close to the facility. R. Nandkishore, director of marketing at the
mall where Philips Lighting is selling its goods, concurs: The ITC
understood that the farmers had recently received money, that they would
spend it anyhow, and that they had an empty truck with which to transport
the goods back.
So to speak, this region has experienced gradually increasing wealth.
Officials at the Nabard office in Bhopal claim that since farmers started
moving to soya bean farming 10 years ago, wealth in this region has been
increasing. A former ITC-IBD (international business division) employee
claims that farmers are starting to hang onto their stocks because of the
information revolution sparked by the chaupals, realising that there is a
benefit to selling later. The fact that most of them cultivate soy, which is
relatively affordable to store, is beneficial.

ITC is operating this warehouse in a manner that is comparable to how it

operated its kiosks. After wiring the hinterland, it used the network to
facilitate a two-way goods’ flow & services to the rural economy in the
first phase. ITC originally distributed its own goods, such salt, through the
sanchalaks before inviting other companies, including Parachute and
Philips, to use this network of distribution. Today, it intends to build
income streams resembling that around its warehouses. ITC wants to take
advantage of the rural residents' out-of-village shopping this time. Of
course, the warehouse serves as one of its main pillars. But only after each
harvest would the farmers visit this place.

The business is providing a plethora of additional treats in an effort to keep

customers coming to Chaupal Sagar even at other times. Next to the main
warehouse, another structure is being constructed. After completion, in
addition to an insurance office and a learning centre, it will include a bank
and a café. Through partnerships with agri-institutes, ITC is able to
provide farmer training programmes. Then, certain areas of land have been
set aside for the presentation of substantial agricultural equipment like
threshers. For product demonstrations, other plots of land have been set
aside for pesticide and fertiliser firms. Additionally, a gas station is
approaching.
 Clothing section in Choupal Sagar

The Great Rural Roadblock

Pradeep Kashyap of rural marketing consultant MART has been closely

monitoring ITC's rural operations from his headquarters in Delhi. "It (e-
chaupal) is a development with enormous potential. People have not yet
realised how crucial it is "He makes this statement in reference to the
distribution model that the sanchalaks stand for. ITC has, however,
addressed one of the main issues that Indian rural merchants encounter.
Think about Philips Lighting. It had successfully reached every Indian
hamlet with a population of 20,000 thanks to its own distribution network,
but it was unable to proceed any farther.

It is straightforward math. Nandkishore advises assuming a village need

200 lightbulbs. The MRP for them is Rs 10 per bulb, or Rs 2,000, and the
firm earns a profit margin of 5-7% on them. The problem is that
Nandkishore would need to rent a vehicle in order to travel farther into the
nation, past the communities with 20,000 residents. That would destroy his
economics since it would cost an additional Rs 50. All rural marketers are
aware with this dilemma. Following that, Philips received a call from ITC,
which was searching for other businesses to join its network.
Today, ITC receives supplies from Philips dealers in the 20,000-person
villages. ITC sends a van to each of its sanchalaks once every 15 days to
deliver orders. Since two years ago, Philips' coverage in these areas has
increased from 20% to up to 50%–60%. The sanchalaks, for their part,
either sell the products directly to consumers or, more frequently, to the
retailers in the hamlet. What impact does the mall now have on this
equation? To start, only Philips uses the sanchalaks to disperse its 60W
and 100W lights. The more expensive items, like energy-saving lights, are
difficult to have put in the local shops.

They are overpriced and take up an excessive amount of the village

kirana's operating cash. Philips intends to display its whole line at the mall
as a result. The essential goods will still be delivered to the village
concurrently. According to Nandkishore "Only when the preceding bulb
fails are new ones purchased. These must be offered for sale inside the
community." Other businesses share their enthusiasm. The leasing model
was developed by Eicher Tractors to address a comparable issue with
reach. It provided the sanchalaks with around 50 tractors, who then rent
them to farmers. N. Subramanian, the company's deputy general manager,
claims that this is raising awareness. Eicher now intends to utilise the mall
to promote its whole line, similar to Philips. TVS is also doing something
similar. On its part, ITC is accepting stocks on a consignment basis.

Carrying It Forward

ITC anticipates opening 4-6 more malls in year. Nothing more, please. It
will watch to observe how people react to the malls. BW sources claim
that the store is doing OK so far. Around 900 individuals had entered the
business on the Sunday before we were there. Foot traffic on weekdays
averaged 700. According to a senior management at a firm using the ITC
network, the store did business of between Rs 70,000 and 80,000 on the
first day. However, compared to kiosks, more money is invested in these
establishments. ITC declined to comment on this topic, however it is
believed that a rural mall will cost between Rs 3 and Rs 5 crore.
Much depends on how accurately ITC has assessed the purchasing habits
of rural consumers. A top manager at one of the companies working with
ITC said it is difficult to alter the purchasing patterns of the villages.
Which is also the argument put out by Subramanian. There was no offtake
for the first six months when the firm started renting out tractors. They
simply sat still. But finally, some individuals started using them, news
spread, and rentals started to increase steadily.

It is late lunchtime when I return to the shop. The temperature is about 35

degrees Celsius in the shade. A few males are moving about inside.
Watching them as they are shopping for FMCGs, snacks, toothpaste, and
other items is fascinating. Are the stereotypes about rural consumers
accurate? that all of the shopping is done by men? Moreover, are women
prohibited from leaving the house? Then, as we are getting ready to depart
and pack things, a bunch of village ladies burst into the store. They
dispersed all over the store. examining FMCGs first, then kitchenware,
refrigerators, plasticware, and so forth. Therefore, Chaupal Sagar is a
significant experiment. It will produce a tonne of insightful, practical
information on the rural customer. Many presumptions and falsehoods will
be put to the test in this area during the next months.

Choupal sagar Products

Choupal Pradarshan Khet(CPK):

e-Choupal, a rural digital infra network of ITC, FMCG, hotels,

agribusiness, and IT giant, will assume a new incarnation as a mobile
phone application over two decades after its introduction. By the middle of
2019, the new digital platform, known as the e-choupal 4.O, is anticipated
to be made available to Indian agri-startup businesses.
ITC's E-Choupal programme, which provided internet kiosks in
communities, aimed to empower farmers. Currently, this effort consists of
roughly 6,100 installations that serve over 4 million farmers and
encompass over 35,000 communities. As the company prepares to
introduce a new plug-and-play ready digital platform for agri-startups to
develop and build their businesses, ITC will continue to offer its e-
Choupals and agri-extension programmes, but they won't be expanded any
further. According to S Sivakumar, head of ITC's Agri & IT Business,
"We are currently enhancing the services of more than 20 startups, who
will be able to use our platform to provide farmers with a variety of
services, such as location-specific weather predictions, crop advisories,
and crop quality testing."

With the help of the flagship agri extension programme "Choupal

Pradarshan Khet" and E-Choupals, ITC was able to provide enormous
value throughout the agricultural value chain. These programmes are
renowned for the dissemination of in-depth knowledge of agricultural
practises, partnerships with India's top research institutions, and a
competitive and effective supply chain. Since ITC nearly exclusively uses
these networks for its procurement requirements, it has also benefited its
agricultural operations. In actuality, ITC's broad backward links with
farmers are what make it strong in the agribusiness. ITC has developed a
highly efficient procurement system because to its networking with the
farming sector.
"The e-Choupal model was created expressly to address the difficulties
brought on by the distinctive characteristics of agriculture in India, which
are characterised by dispersed farms, a lack of infrastructure, and the use
of several intermediaries, among other things. The e-Choupal concept
establishes a sizeable, multi-dimensional, two-way conduit that can
effectively transport goods & services in & out of rural India, recovering
related costs through agri-sourcing-led efficiency "The business claims.

Agri business of ITC has introduced a flagship extension programme

called "Choupal Pradarshan Khet" (CPK), to assist farmers in increasing
farm productivity by implementing agricultural best practises. This
programme is in line with ITC's mission to improve the life quality of
rural India.

ITC's Choupal Pradarshan Khet, were established in 2005–2006 with the

goal of assisting farmers in increasing farm productivity. The CPK
programme currently includes demonstration plots for soy, cotton, paddy,
maize, wheat, bajra, gramme, mustard, sunflower, and potato crops. More
than 10 lakh farmers have benefited from ITC's 83,388 CPKs over the
years, covering 4.4 lakh acres in roughly 5,000 villages. "Of the 10 lakh
aggregate beneficiaries, around 34,000 farmers' incomes have doubled
(107 per cent growth) by adopting all the practises and recommended
inputs," says ITC.
The revenue of balance farmers has also increased by 30% to 75%,
depending on whether suggested techniques are adopted. According to the
corporation, "it was discovered that the farmers are pleased with the
interventions by ITC as their produce and revenue have grown
significantly since ITC's involvement. According to Shivakumar, the basic
components of ITC's strategy for increasing farmer income will not change
when switching from a desktop-based UI at the village level to a mobile
platform based on e-Choupal 4.O. He also notes that the emphasis will still
be on improving farm productivity, improving product quality & integrity,
reducing cultivation costs, and risk mitigation.

Aqua Choupal:

The ITC investigated digital technology to create a new possible business

concept. As a result, various e-choupals have been developed, including
the Aqua choupal and others made of soya in MP, wheat in UP, and coffee
in Karnataka. The Aqua choupal model was introduced in AP by the ITC's
IBD on February 7, 2001. This model's stated goal is to present the most
recent local and international information on weather, scientific
agricultural techniques, and market pricing in the local language (Telugu).

In AP's coastline region, sixty aqua choupals have been placed. A

choupal's declared purpose is to gather information from farmers,
including their address, information on their ponds, the cultural customs
they follow, etc. Additionally, assist farmers by giving them the necessary
information at various supply chain stages. Creating a database with this
data is helpful for overseeing the development of a traceability system at
the processing level for shrimp export requirements.

Aqua Care Centres:

The Aqua Care Center handles concerns regarding the calibre of shrimp
seed products. This centre offers two different exam types. These include
PCR and MBV assays for viral detection & wet-lab tests for salinity stress,
formalin stress, , and microscopic evaluations. ITC uses computers, in
contrast to other private laboratories, to print photos from virus testing.
Through the clear glass that has been installed on the lab walls, the farmers
can see every step of the testing process, which contributes to their faith in
the results. Additionally, all test results and the resulting seed material
quality from individual farmers are recorded on the computers.

When making a purchase, this knowledge of the seed material's quality is

utilised. Both Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop are utilised.
Computers and the Internet don't play a big part right now, but ITC plans
to create databases with data on specific farms in the future. Such a
database will be helpful to determine the seed material's quality and is
crucial to the traceability system.

Choupal Fresh:

ITC, a diversified company, increased its retail and wholesale sales of

fruits and vegetables by building 54 additional stores in certain metro
areas. Every cauliflower & tomato at ITC Ltd.'s Choupal Fresh shop in this
city has a story to tell, and in those stories is a bigger story about how
contemporary retail efforts are gradually beginning to change India's
infamously inefficient farm-to-kitchen supply chain.
ITC, which is better known as India's largest cigarette manufacturer, is
okay with the fact that most consumers at its vegetable & fruit stores here
appear to hardly notice the little leaflets that discuss how the produce got
there. ITC is worried about the perception of freshness it has been able to
create, but more importantly, it is worried about how it has been able to
create, at least locally, a system that allows the emerging retailer to offer
fresh produce to customers at more enticing prices while farmers receive
better prices and have much more financial security.

Many large industrial companies have entered the food retail market
despite lingering concerns about the benefits and drawbacks of organised
retail in India as well as the potential effects it may have on current
purchasing and selling practises, particularly for fruits and vegetables.
While detractors of organised retail have claimed that the absence of cold
chains and other forms of transportation infrastructure is proof that modern
retail only shows lip service to farmers, businesses like ITC are examining
innovative local loops to create more dependable—and lucrative—ways to
connect farmers with their customers.

At Anil Kashith's 8 acres farm in Yadgaon village, where the Kashith

brothers cultivate vegetables and grapes, the narrative of the Choupal
Fresh shops in this city truly starts. Kashith receives a call every morning
stating which veggies ITC needs that day and in what amount. He gathers
exactly what was required and places the veggies into the corporate
vehicle when it arrives at approximately 10am.
After visiting about 300 identical farms, the truck makes its way to the
ITC's collecting centre in Manchar, where it arrives about midday. Here,
the fruit is weighed, sorted, and placed for each store according to its
precise eventual destination. By noon, the farmers are paid, and the
product is on its way to the supermarkets. By 3 o'clock, Kashith's veggies
are labelled "Today's Harvest" and available in stores in Pune. According
to S. Sivakumar, CEO of ITC Agri Business, it is drawing interest.

Similar steps are taken again in the evening, but this time the gathered
veggies are kept in a warehouse and placed on the shelves of the stores the
following morning. Kashith and the other local farmers sell at least 650kg
of veggies one cold morning. They received Rs. 5 for a kilogramme of
tomatoes, which the ITC shop will sell for Rs. 7 per kilogramme. The
business would sell cauliflower that cost them Rs3.75 per kg for Rs10 per
kg. Okra, or ladyfingers, which they previously sold for Rs 20 per
kilogramme, would now cost Rs 29.

Kashith isn't whining at all. He claims that if he had sold his goods that
day at the wholesale market in Pune, he would have received just Rs. 3 per
kg for the cauliflower and would have actually lost money due to the
transportation charges of Rs. 1 per kg and the cost of Rs. 2 per 10 kg of
loading and unloading. It goes beyond only greater pricing at the cycle's
end.

Kashith is advised by ITC and the Growth-oriented Micro

Entrepreneurship Development (GMED) programme of the US Agency
for International Development to plant exotic, higher-margin veggies at
the start of each season. Through the expertise of GMED's farm staff, they
also assist in enhancing output.

They inform Kashith that the customarily enormous bottle gourds are out
of style since families are becoming smaller. As a result, he collects bottle
gourds at 45 days, when they are still ripe but smaller for ITC, and at 55
days for the wholesale market. ITC also gives him some little plastic
sheets to wrap the bottle gourd in while being transported, keeping the
surface smooth and inviting. They instruct him to gather both green,
unripe, and ripe tomatoes so that clients can buy them on the weekends
and prepare them throughout the week.

Balasaheb Gawde, a local farmer, is now growing cherry tomatoes, red

capsicum, peas, & chillies under a green net shed, along with saplings that
are sprouting out of plastic sheets to control weeds, thanks to the advice
given to him. A locally made pre-cooling unit also helps to keep the
vegetables moist and fresh. ITC offers the same assistance to over 300
farmers in 3 more clusters that collaborate with Choupal Fresh outlets in
Pune. ITC now operates 14 similar outlets in Hyderabad, Pune, and
Chandigarh, with plans to build an additional 50 over the following six
months.

The Today's Harvest programme is available at all of the stores, which are
connected to regional farmer clusters. According to ITC's Sivakumar,
simple solutions like linking retailers with neighbourhood farmers,
dispensing market-based guidance, and offering productivity counsel
would aid contemporary retail. Those who rely on the conventional
methods of purchasing produce—through several middlemen—find they
are already at a competitive disadvantage even without sophisticated
supply chain expenditures. Krishna Mhase, who sells fruit and vegetables
in Pune, is located on a street corner within a short distance from a
Choupal Fresh.

Some of the veggies he sells are less expensive or priced the same as
Choupal Fresh. He charges Rs. 24 per kg for okra while Choupal Fresh
charges Rs. 29; he charges Rs. 12 for brinjals as opposed to Choupal
Fresh's Rs. 13 per kg. Their vegetables are neither more affordable nor
superior, he claims. "But people think they are better because they appear
better under the air conditioning and bright lighting," claims Mhase, who
acknowledges that since Choupal Fresh arrived, business has decreased by
50%.

Mhase massages his veggies with a moist towel to protect them from the
noxious fumes coming from the road, and for the time being, they do
appear firm and fresh. Contrary to Choupal Fresh, they were gathered a
day before to their arrival in these plastic buckets, making them far more
vulnerable to fire sales as the day wears on. Third-generation vegetable
seller Satish Koshti, a friend of Mhase's, has already been driven out of
business by Choupal and other supermarkets. He just changed to Sober, a
clothes business. At approximately 5 a.m. every day, Mhase purchases his
fruit from the neighbourhood wholesale market, known as Gultekdi market
yard. Produce is often brought in by farmers from a number of nearby
villages late at night, loaded, and sold to dealers who then resale it to tiny
shopkeepers like Mhase in the early morning.

However, because the Gultekdi market is subject to the Agriculture

Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, prices are decided through
an open auction. Now that the statute has been modified by a number of
states, including Maharashtra, merchants like ITC are able to source
directly from farmers instead of going via APMC. Although Kashith
claims that having to pay the travel and loading costs deters him from
coming to the APMC market, he does sell some of his veggies there.
Additionally, he asserts that occasionally his veggies are under-weighed
and he is thus paid less.

Choupal Sagar Competitors

Godrej Aadhar:

Godrej Agrovet Ltd launched the "Godrej Aadhaar" programme in

December 2004 with a 1,000 square foot store and a few services. The
company is now eager to significantly expand its rural retailing endeavour.

To further develop Godrej Aadhaar in the rural areas, the business has now
chosen to move away from the standalone approach and concentrate
primarily on the hub-and-spoke strategy. By March 2006, pilot projects are
anticipated to start in Punjab and Maharashtra. A year after its debut, the
over Rs 20 crore "Godrej Aadhaar" brand has expanded to become a
network of 18 centres, offering a wide range of amenities and services.
This appeal to rural areas is what prompted Godrej Agrovet to change its
model in order to pursue future development.

Executive vice-president of Godrej Agrovet Ltd. R. S. Vijan remarked

exclusively to DNA, "The statistics are a clear indicator of the potential for
an idea like this. The hub-and-spoke style appears to be the natural choice
to further this project now that the brand has established itself with the
target market. Each hub centre will have a minimum of five spoke centres,
and the business plans to have 1,000 Godrej Aadhaar centres in operation
within the next five to eight years. The corporation would primarily
concentrate on the northern and western areas to build these centres, with a
target revenue of between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000 crore in the
aforementioned time.

A hub shop will be around 10,000 square feet in size, while the spoke
centres will take up about 3,000 square feet. According to company
estimates, each of the stand-alone centres currently generates an annual
turnover of between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore. However, the upcoming
hub centres are projected to generate Rs 4 crore annually, and spoke centre
revenues will roughly match the stand-alone centres' annual turnover.
We'll be looking at about 250 hubs, and the remaining spokes, said Vijan.

Each hub would cost Rs 1 crore to set up, with each spoke centre costing
between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 60 lakh. This format will be financed by
internal accruals and borrowed money.

In order to efficiently service the additional centres, Godrej Agrovet will

spruce up existing distribution centres. There are now two distribution
centres for the business in Maharashtra. Godrej Aadhaar centres are
positioned as a full-service provider of solutions for Indian farmers and
provide qualified advice with the goal of enhancing production, increasing
returns, and improving the cost-benefit ratio. Agri input and animal feed
supply, repurchase of output, crop financing, information transmission,
door-to-door delivery of goods, and agricultural advice services are just a
few of the services provided.

The last several months have seen the centres diversify to provide a variety
of additional product categories such durables, FMCG, garments,
footwear, etc. in an effort to meet every need of the rural home. Through
unique partnerships with other businesses, these items are made available.
Nearly 100 brands are presently linked to the Godrej Aadhaar centres, and
many more will soon form partnerships, said Vijan. The 18 Godrej
Aadhaar locations range in size from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet.
Additionally, the organisers hope to open around 30 new locations in
2006–07. In addition to a handful in Orissa and West Bengal, the current
centres are open in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu,
and Andhra Pradesh.
Tata Kisan Sansar

Tata Chemicals Limited today announced the opening of "Tata Kisan

Sansar," a network of one-stop resource centres, as part of its ongoing
effort to improve the lives of farmers. The Tata Kisan Sansar is an
innovative programme for farmers that will help them by providing end-
to-end agri solutions, including the most recent agro services and
specialised input goods. The service, which includes planning for
agricultural inputs and crop procurement, will help farmers make decisions
that will boost productivity and better position them to meet market
demands. The Tata Kisan Sansar (TKS), an enhanced version of the
current Tata Kisan Kendras, is a special programme that will aid farmers
by giving simple access to the most recent methods and advanced
agricultural concepts, which are otherwise not easily accessible to indian
farmers.

In its initial phase, TKS will offer solutions to more than 14,000 villages in
Northern India, including three highly productive agricultural states:
Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. The main advantages offered by TKS
to a farmer are simple access to the market and the facilitation of long-
term, low-interest finance by joining the Kisan Sahyog Pariwars self-help
group (KSP). In 256 communities, KSP pilot programmes have already
been implemented effectively. The business has educated agronomists to
work directly with farmers to provide solutions for all aspects of
agriculture. Over 130 highly qualified agronomists who work for the
organisation continuously research and deliver the finest agro-practices to
the farmers in the three states.
Prasad Menon, Managing Director of Tata Chemicals, announced the
establishment of TKS and stated, "This developmental endeavour forms a
part of the Tata Group concept of focussing on areas of national economic
relevance. It represents the group's conviction that rural India can expand
significantly with a little help from private sector businesses like Tata
Chemicals. TKS will provide farmers with the whole spectrum of agro
services, serving as their business partner and adviser. For the farmers, it
will produce a favourable climate (Sansar) that will enable them to
improve their production and, in turn, bring affluence into their life. Our
effort has started with 421 TKS encompassing three agriculturally
productive states in the North, and we intend to increase our reach by 500
outlets by 2005."

The firm will install kiosks at all strategic places with the goal of assisting
the farmer in increasing his production via educated decision-making.
These kiosks will provide quick and simple access to the information
needed by a farmer, like Mandi pricing among other things, in real time.
The TKS centres will also have IT capabilities and track the characteristics
of the farmers that visit them. By doing this, the business will respond
faster and serve the farmer more effectively. In addition, TKS will expand
the contract farming service (output buyback) that has already helped
farmers in 60 villages in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In addition, TKS will
keep offering further farm management options.
Kapil Mehan, COO of Tata Chemicals' Fertilizer Business, outlined how
TKS came to be "We discovered that there is a significant need among
farmers for agriculture-related solutions across all areas as we addressed
the agro input needs of farmers through our Tata Kisan Kendras (TKK).
Through our resource centres, we will provide complete agro solutions
with TKS, enhancing the lives of farmers. Today, a new logo is being
launched to provide a distinct branding distinction for TKS, and the whole
appearance and feel of the resource centres will be based on this new
identity. The new logo will represent the overall nature of this endeavour
and the core of our offers." A farmer has two options for utilising TKS
services: either join Tata Kisan or pay selectively for the products.

e Choupal 4.0 & Future plans:

A young manager named S Sivakumar presented the then-ITC chairman,

Y C Deveshwar, with a proposal for Rs 50 lakh to establish e-Choupals, a
model that used the power of the internet to empower small and marginal
farmers. However, after considerable thought and after seeing the
potential, a far larger budget of Rs 10 crore was allocated, and the e-
Choupal was created. It has not only developed into a flagship initiative
and a crucial component of ITC's agri-sourcing infrastructure during the
past 20 years, but it has also resulted in increased earnings for farmers.
According to who and where, the e-Choupal concept has increased farmer
earnings by ranging from 70% to 300%; for ITC, better market knowledge
for procuring commodities has led to 5% reduced costs.

But these are the outcomes as of 2016. Due to agri-reforms undertaken by

the government and technological advancement, the model is expected to
acquire momentum in the most recent version, Version 4.0. The concept
has gone through a protracted process of evolution, starting with the
reorganization of agri supply chains and advancing to a platform for the
reverse flow of goods and services and finally to the development of an
ecosystem that benefits farmers and rural consumers. Numerous e-Choupal
4.0 pilot programmes, which primarily make use of mobile phones and
digital technology, were started in 2019.

The most modern incarnation of the format, according to Sivakumar, who

is presently the group head of ITC's agri and IT division, focuses on
promoting agricultural entrepreneurship and agri-tech start-ups through
agri services aggregator models. By giving them access to cutting-edge
technology, information, crop advise, crop stress assessments, weather
forecasting, and other services, this strengthens farmers in a number of
ways and leads to increased profits for them. Under e-Choupal 4.0, data
analytics will enhance and drive service customization. According to
Sivakumar, it would be a plug-and-play platform for agrotech start-ups.

The agricultural reforms will provide ITC a boost as it expands its

influence and range of activities. On the one hand, exemption from the
Essential Commodities Act (ECA) will eliminate the risk associated with
scaling volumes, and on the other hand, the financial sustainability of
investment will be improved by not having to pay mandi cess for directly
obtained volumes. When e-Choupals first went live in June 2000, there
were just six installations. Around 1,900 of them connected 11,000
communities and more than 1.2 million farmers by April 2003; by 2007,
that number had increased to 6,500. Approximately six choupals were
opening per day at one time. However, circa 2007–2008, the growth
stalled because to sluggish changes to the Agriculture Produce Marketing
Committee (APMC) Act, export restrictions, subsidies, stock limits, and
the ban on futures trading. The emphasis then switched to broadening the
services offered.

According to Sivakumar, the metric for achieving scale under the present
model has changed to the number of villages and farmers being added as
opposed to addition in physical forms of e-Choupals. The prevalence of
smartphones and tablets has somewhat diminished the necessity for
physical infrastructure, such as village internet kiosks. By 2030, e-Choupal
4.0 hopes to connect with 10 million farmers. This is expected to be
accomplished far in advance of the target year thanks to agri-reforms,
technological advancements, and the encouragement of demand-driven
agriculture, according to Sivakumar. There are currently 4 million farmers
connected to the e-Choupal ecosystem.

Increased corporate involvement in agriculture would be made possible,

according to Sivakumar, by recent government changes in agricultural
marketing and modifications to the Essential Commodities Act. ITC has
been stepping up its direct acquisition of wheat and other commodities,
and this will continue to happen. Horticulture is the other industry that
would benefit from the newly proposed farm reforms. According to
Sivakumar, ITC also intends to build fruit and vegetable clusters. For its B
Natural line of drinks, the business has been buying fresh fruit directly
from growers. For its Farmland brand of fresh fruits and vegetables, it also
sources fresh produce.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/fmcg/itc-will-give-a-
glimpse-of-its-future-plans-in-first-ever-investor-meet-on-tuesday/articleshow/
88216904.cms
 
 
 

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/itc-to-invest-around-14-851-cr-under-
next-strategy-to-look-for-acquisitions-11628766744757.html
 TATA MOTORS

At present, rural markets garner 35% of the total passenger vehicle sales
through a network of 865 outlets. However, this will be increased to 2,000
outlets in the next three years as, at present, we are able to reach only 60%
of the available domestic market. We are also pushing towards mobile
showrooms, service vans and sales executives in rural areas. 
https://www.tatamotors.com/blog/passenger-vehicle/tata-motors-eye-rural-
markets/

Tata Motors  is deploying over 100 mobile showrooms across the country
as part of an initiative called Anubhav which will offer its customers an
experience of  doorstep car buying in the rural areas. The auto major has
launched Anubhav, a showroom on wheels, in line with its rural
marketing strategy.
This  will help the company to increase the company's reach in rural areas
as it has high potential on the basis of huge population in that sector.
A total of 103 mobile showrooms are being deployed across the county.
These mobile showrooms will act as  a one-stop solution for rural
customers who are looking for information about the company's cars and
also various finance schemes and exchange offers available to them.

Mr. Rajan Amba, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Customer

Care, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. said, “We are delighted to
commence the Anubhav Initiative. This is a significant step towards taking
the brand to the hinterland and making our New Forever range of cars &
SUVs more accessible while reducing our dependability on the
traditionally followed model of a brick-and-mortar facility. These mobile
showrooms will be a one stop solution for rural customers seeking
information about our cars, finance schemes, exchange offers etc. They
will also derive important consumer insights and data for us to further
improve our customer outreach. Rural India sales contributes around
40% to the total passenger vehicles sold in India and with this concept we
are confident of expanding our reach, and increasing our customer base
in these markets.”

Youtube video- 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YwftANX1KV0&list=PLcmt2ZfkV0M3nW2hu3RO3hEhgabi8jN2F

References-
https://www.tatamotors.com/press/tata-motors-goes-hyperlocal-for-its-
passenger-vehicle-buyers/

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/auto-news/tata-
motors-to-deploy-mobile-showrooms-in-rural-areas-to-offer-doorstep-car-
buying-experience/articleshow/89968013.cms

Common Service Centre

Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, announced

the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Common
Service Centre Scheme (CSC) e-Governance Services India Limited, in a
collaborative effort to bring Tata Motors commercial vehicles to rural
customers, across India. CSC’s nationwide network and digital services
will further strengthen Tata Motors’ reach in rural geographies, including
 remote areas of the country. The partnership will add impetus to the
development of rural India, and remarkably better the last-mile
transportation with Tata Motors’ modern and efficient commercial vehicle
range.
The partnership is curated on the back of Tata Motors’ core philosophy of
nation-building and providing a means of livelihood to the rural population
of the country. Through this initiative, Tata Motors and CSC aim to
increase accessibility in remote regions and help realise the Government of
India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision

https://www.tatamotors.com/press/tata-motors-joins-hands-with-common-
service-centre-scheme-to-widen-its-reach-in-rural-india/

Project NEEV
Project Neev, a rural marketing project from Tata Motors Ltd. In order to
promote their car lineup in remote villages with a population of fewer than
50,000, Tata engaged well-known rural residents to act as Tata Gram
Mitras. Along with utilising the rural outreach initiatives of other
businesses through strategic alliances, Tata distributed its automobiles in
such markets through independent retailers known as Tata Kisan Mitra.
Project Neev was a success, strengthening Tata's ability to compete and
contributing significantly to the company's vehicle sales. Within a decade,
Project Neev's coverage of nearly all Indian states was increased by Tata.
In 2010, there were just three states included in the project. Today, there
are 11 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, which
account for more than 60% of the market.
·         Through Tata Gramin Mitras, independent outlets known as Tata Kisan
Mitra, and an unofficial network of significant local influencers, Neev is
expanding its network. Nearly 80,000 vehicles have reportedly been sold
through Neev so far, according to Tata Motors. However, the initiative
includes rural areas with a population of under 50,000, and investments are
made with great caution.
·         Additionally, a Neev outlet might have monthly expenses of between
Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 30,000 and requires an investment of between Rs. 45
and Rs. 50 lakh (except land cost). According to Tata Motors, the project's
human resource costs were quite low. Out of 6,000 Tata Gram Mitras,
5,000 are freelancers involved in the initiative. They include teachers,
youngsters from rural areas, doctors, mechanics, and a small number of
panchayat members.
·         The major goal is to use automobile ownership to "promote the idea of
self-empowerment." The Tata Gram Mitras are paid a regular stipend and
are rewarded if any inquiries result in sales. According to Tata, the
company receives about 50,000 inquiries from the Neev marketplaces each
month, compared to almost 1 lakh from urban areas. Conversion varies as
well. In contrast to urban markets, where 8 to 12% of inquiries result in a
sale, 3 to 4% of inquiries result in a sale in NEEV markets.
·         This enables Tata Motors to generate roughly 20% of its overall sales
from markets in the Neev. 35 to 36% of overall sales in large states like
Bihar and Madhya Pradesh take place in tiny markets. Although the
business anticipates that 35% of total revenues would come from the Neev
markets across all 11 states, Tata Motor has worked with Kisan Seva
Kendras run by Indian Oil Corporation, which are located in distant areas
with minimal to no gasoline distribution. The owner of these Kisan Seva
Kendras typically enjoys a high level of popularity in the neighbourhood,
which aids Tata Motors in showcasing vehicles, planning workshops and
events, lending fairs, and educational programmes for village children.
REF: https://www.autocarpro.in/feature/tata-building-foundation-bharat-
9264

TATA Motors Offline Rural Marketing Campaign across Agri-Mandees

in Maharashtra
Tata Motors did not do well in the Nashik market since Mahindra Bolero
had already established itself there, and their campaign competed directly
with Bolero Pickup.
We have prepared a plan of action that will demonstrate the advantages of
utilising a larger car over a smaller one while spending a little bit more.
Target Group:
 
·  Underemployed and unemployed youth aged between age group
21 and 35 see running a SCV/LCV as a viable means of self-
employment.
·  Large agricultural families, who could invest in a SCV/ LCV, as a
second source of income for the family.
·  Shopkeepers, small businesses that could use these vehicles for
captive and third-party transport of goods and people within a 10–
50-kilometer radius.

Tata Digital -

Tata Digital, the youngest digital arm of the Tata Sons group, has invested
about Rs 10 crore for an undisclosed stake in Grameen e-Store, the
government's rural e-commerce venture, according to a top official.

Grameen e-Store, launched in April this year, is available in 120,000

locations across the country. It has already clocked Rs 120 crore in
turnover so far.
The digital centres, or CSCs, are present in close to 385,000 locations
across rural areas and aid people in accessing government as well as
private services digitally. Since the start of the rural e-commerce venture,
the entrepreneurs manning the CSCs are also delivering products to people
in nearby areas which are ordered through the Grameen eStore app. The
catalogs are customized locally by the entrepreneurs based on the
availability of products.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/tata-digital-buys-
stake-in-govts-rural-e-tailer-grameen-e-store/articleshow/79518748.cms?
from=mdr

https://vlesociety.com/tata-motor-cars-and-four-wheelers-launched-on-csc/
CSC SPV has tied up with Tata Motors Ltd. for generating sales lead
through CSC E-Mobility Portal. VLEs can generate sales lead through
portal and TML will pay for every successful sale through VLEs.

TATA STEEL

Nukkad Natak - A small town and rural marketing activity for Tata Steel

https://youtu.be/vY6VghjarYI

Tata Sky's (TATA PLAY ) rural play

Tata Sky attempts to target non-urban India. The message is, 'If your call
can get connected, so can your Tata Sky.

"I am just a call away," is quite a claim. Especially when made by a

service provider.  DTH provider Tata Sky does just this. The message is
loud and clear: "Phone lagega to Tata Sky bhi lagega" - If your phone can
get connected from a particular location, so can Tata Sky. Ogilvy India has
created a marketing campaign to deliver this message. An ad film, shot in
the remote areas of Leh Ladakh, is currently doing the rounds on TV.
As the television industry gears up for digitisation (with a sunset date of

December 31, 2014) distribution players are trying to reach every possible

nook and corner of the country -- and understandably so. In non-urban

India, Dish TV is the strongest DTH player. In its current campaign, we

see Tata Sky, a brand that is strong in urban India, making an attempt to
establish itself as a pan-India player in the truest sense of the term. Its

availability in the most remote regions of the country is the message being

highlighted. Currently, 50 per cent of Tata Sky's total subscriber base (11.5

million as of April, 2013) is from rural India (which is outside the top 100

towns).

There are close to 35 million DTH subscribers in India, catered to by

seven players. Of Tata Sky's new subscribers (last four years), 60 per cent

are from outside India's top 20 cities, says Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO,

Tata Sky. Vikram Mehra, chief commercial officer, Tata Sky, adds that

while urban subscribers are upgrading to recorders and mobile apps, rural

India is awakening and demanding for DTH connections.

REF:https://www.afaqs.com/news/advertising/39485_tata-skys-rural-play

REF:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-town-rural-subscription-
to-outpace-cities-tata-sky/articleshow/51380131.cms

Tata BP Solar (Tata Power Solar)

Making the sun rise

14,000 houses in distant Ladakh, 7,500 feet above sea level, in the icy
Himalayan climate, have lights. Farmers in Punjab may water their farms
without using traditional electricity. In Chattisgarh, students may study at
night and tribals living in 107 "grid-inaccessible" villages can watch
television.

A business that has led the solar industry is Tata BP Solar.

Sunbank, a specially designed solution for computerising rural banks,
comprises of a power pack, solar modules, batteries, and controllers, and it
supplies electricity for three to six hours every day. The business will next
consider powering ATMs. Suraksha, a solar-powered communication
system, enhances the efficiency of police stations.
There are tens of thousands of primary health centres in India, but the
majority have very little or no electricity, making it difficult to keep
vaccinations chilled below 6°C. The World Health Organization-approved,
locally produced solar-powered vaccine refrigerator is part of the Arogya
health centre package (WHO).

Tata Power launches the 'SOLAROOF' Campaign - "Kamai Badhaye

Dildaar Banaye"

Informs customers about dual benefits of solar rooftop solutions viz.

generating clean energy and enjoying financial savings

In 31 Indian cities, the "SOLAROOF" campaign will spread this idea

across a variety of media. As of now, 94 Indian cities have access to
Tata Power's rooftop solar solutions, which are offered in 26 states
and 7 union territories.

One of the obstacles to the adoption of solar in the nation's MSME

sector has been the availability of simple and reasonable financing.
Tata Power and SIDBI have teamed up to provide an innovative solar
financing solution for MSME customers that will help them transition
to rooftop solar without any collateral and at an interest rate under
10% in order to address this difficulty. A speedy sanction and
disbursement process will be added to this to complement it (within 7
days with disbursement in 4 days).

ref:https://www.tatapower.com/media/PressReleaseDetails/1839/tata-
power-launches-the-solaroof-campaign-kamai-badhaye-dildaar-
banaye

Tata Chemicals: one-stop farming shop (Tata Kisan Sansar)

• Indian agriculture's appearance is evolving. The farmer is eager to
participate in the new revolution, which has seen the development of new
practises, techniques, and farming systems.

• The Tata Kisan Kendra (TKK), a one-stop shop for Indian farmers that
provides everything they need from seed sowing to post-harvest, was
established by Tata Chemicals in 1998.

• The business changed the name of the rural programme and shifted its
focus to providing services four years later. It now goes by the name Tata
Kisan Sansar (TKS) and offers farmers a variety of agricultural products
and services.

Tata Chemicals Limited  announced the opening of "Tata Kisan Sansar," a

network of one-stop resource centres, as part of its ongoing effort to
improve the lives of farmers. The Tata Kisan Sansar is an innovative
programme for farmers that will help them by providing end-to-end agri
solutions, including the most recent agro services and specialised input
goods. The service, which includes planning for agricultural inputs and
crop procurement, will help farmers make decisions that will boost
productivity and better position them to meet market demands.

The Tata Kisan Sansar (TKS), an enhanced version of the current Tata
Kisan Kendras, is a special effort that will aid farmers by facilitating
simple access to the most recent methods and advanced farming concepts,
which are otherwise not easily available to Indian farmers. In its first
phase, TKS will offer solutions to more than 14,000 villages in Northern
India, spanning three highly productive agricultural states: Punjab, Uttar
Pradesh, and Haryana.

The company will install kiosks at all strategic places with the goal of
assisting the farmer in increasing his production via informed decision-
making. These kiosks will provide quick and easy access to the
information needed by a farmer, like Mandi pricing among other things, in
real time. The TKS centres will also have IT capabilities and track the
characteristics of the farmers that visit them. By doing this, the business
will respond faster and serve the farmer more effectively. In addition, TKS
will expand the contract farming service (output buyback) that has already
benefited farmers in 60 villages in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In addition,
TKS will keep offering additional farm management options.

Youtube video : https://youtu.be/Cit1KyK9n3g

Ref: https://www.tatachemicals.com/news-room/press-release/Tata-
Chemicals-launches-Tata-Kisan-Sansar

Tata AIG Life Insurance: Insuring the bottom of the pyramid

Of the country's 14 life insurance companies, one company decided to do

things a little differently. "We thought we would take another route," says
Vijay Athreye, assistant VP and head (rural and social) at Tata AIG Life
Insurance.

In doing so, the company is also giving the rural poor an opportunity to
provide for their own security needs and hence develop. In 2001, started
the rural insurance division and spent a lot of time studying rural markets
and the insurance business in rural areas.

Tata Consumer Products

Economic times interview with Sunil D’Souza, MD & CEO, Tata
consumer products

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/will-rural-
lead-the-way-for-tata-consumer/videoshow/77651153.cms

The key is to keep delivering results so that the momentum continues and
we are creating a platform to become a full fledged FMCG co, says Sunil
D'Souza, MD & CEO, Tata Consumer Products.

TATA Teleservices Nano Ganesh

 The farmers need to buy Tata Indicom Connection Modem

 The farmers are provided a unique code
 This enables the farmers to use the mobile handset as a remote for
Irrigation System
Cost of handset Rs 2700 extra
All calls to the pump from the mobile are free.

TATA RALLIS

Marketing Initiative:

•Differentiation through service, quality, and interaction with the growers

•"We have a very strong brand equity in this market. The Tata name is
associated with Rallis and often people call it Tata Rallis"

•Created a mascot, 'Dr Vishwas', a sort of super man who identifies

farmers' problems and offers complete solutions

•A unique marketing programme called 4S Sampark Sambandh Samruddhi

Santushti which means building relationships through information and
service.

Dr. Vishwas Sampark Yatra & Promotional Activities:

 TATA ACE

The five essential attributes they look for in a small commercial vehicle
are lower operating costs (as compared to a three wheeler), reliability,
durability, safety and comfort, and most important of all a viable business
proposition

• For the Semi-Urban and Rural market they designed a vehicle between a
three wheeler and a pick up truck, at a price sensitive level.

•A sturdy vehicle that can carry loads up to 1.5 tonnes over distances up to
300 km, the Ace is a four wheeler at a price slightly higher than a three
wheeler, but offering greater stability, safety and comfort

•Ace, therefore, became a emotional brand at a functional price. . It

enabled the customer to climb the social ladder
 TATA KISAN SANSAR

The allure of rural India has been the topic of lively conversation in
boardrooms for a while now. There is also a strong explanation behind it.
Marketing executives are spreading out and identifying the strengths of the
huge rural markets as they aim to extend their markets because urban
markets are becoming saturated for a number of consumer goods
categories and because rural incomes are increasing. The concept is now
well-developed and rules conversations in any company boardroom
strategy session.

Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group, which operates in a variety of

industries from agri-foods to real estate, says without reservation, The idea
that shoppers in rural areas don't care about brands and quality is untrue.
The main economic research organisation in India, the National Council
for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), recently conducted a survey to
establish that the increase in rural earnings is keeping up with the increase
in urban incomes. The average rural income increased from 55 to 58
percent of the average urban income in 1994–1995 to 63 to 64 percent by
2001–2002 and roughly 66 percent in 2004–2005. Compared to its urban
equivalent, which is growing at a rate of 13%, the middle class in rural
areas is growing at a rate of 12%.

Due to all this potential, India's major corporations are scrambling to

establish and grow their rural business operations. The $17 billion Tata
group, the oldest corporate organisation, which has integrated its rural
operations, has also kept an eye on it. Till 2003, the two corporations that
make up the group, Tata Chemicals and Rallis India, had independent rural
programmes. Tata Chemicals operated the Tata Kisan Kendra network,
which provided farmers with a variety of goods and services, including
finance options, advice services, and agro supplies. Contrarily, Rallis was
collaborating with ICICI Bank and Hindustan Lever to provide farmers
packages that encompassed operations from the pre-harvest to the post-
harvest phases.

In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Haryana,

Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Bihar, there is a network of franchised retail
stores called Tata Kisan Sansar. With access to more than 3.5 million
farmers, the network of agri-service centres provides services to almost
22,000 villages in the area.

The facilities serve as one-stop resource centres, renting out farm

machinery and implements, renting out seeds, pesticides, and fertilisers,
and offering services like soil testing, fertiliser mapping, credit financing,
crop insurance, etc.

Call Centres
Business process outsourcing (BPO) centres have been established by Tata
Chemicals at Babrala, Uttar Pradesh, and Mithapur, Gujarat. Due to their
location in rural India, these centres are distinctive in that they offer local
residents in these regions chances for self-sustaining community
development and employment.
The Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD), a division
of TCL that focuses on community initiatives, created the centres, known
as Uday. Uday, the company's rural BPO, along with SerWizSol in
Mithapur and Babrala have been giving job chances to 206 rural kids and
have brought sunshine into their lives in places where job prospects were
almost nonexistent.

TATA KISAN KENDRA

The Tata Group launched Tata Kisan Kendra (TKK) with the support of
Tata Chemicals in an effort to use technology to address social and
economic issues in India. The TKKs' adoption of precision farming has the
ability to transform rural India from the time of bullock carts to the
satellite and IT era. Through the TKKs, TCL offers extension services to
farmers that use remote sensing technologies to examine soil, provide
information on crop health and pest infestations, and anticipate agricultural
yields. Farmers can more easily adjust to shifting conditions thanks to this.
Crops will be healthier, yields will increase, and farmer incomes will rise
as a result.

Each kendra's staff is capable of solving any problem relating to

agriculture. Farmers can stay current on news and the most recent
worldwide events with the aid of a well-stocked library of journals and
magazines. Additionally, the Kendras send out periodic bulletins to
subscribers with info on farms. The TKKs' training rooms are utilised for
workshops and the showing of agriculturally themed movies. The TKK
network provides crop clinics where agronomists consult with farmers on
what to produce, where and when to grow it, how much urea and fertilisers
to use, and other pertinent information using computers to retrieve data
from the geographic information system (GIS). Technicians at the soil
testing facility examine soil samples to ascertain their composition and
validate the information provided by the satellite maps.

The TKK network also runs research farms where scientists carry out
agricultural development and research. Farmers who cannot afford to
purchase pricey contemporary machinery can rent farm equipment and
implements from TKKs, which stock seeds, insecticides, and fertilisers
that can be purchased by farmers at reasonable prices. Finance is one of
the top concerns for Indian small farmers. This requirement is also met by
the kendras. Farmers have access to buyback facilities, loans, and
insurance to protect their crops from catastrophic disasters.

The kendras also include exhibition halls where special events are hosted
for members of the Tata Kisan Parivar (Tata Farmers Family), a group
supported by the TKK network to foster links with farmers and their
families. These events may be educational, social, or simply for fun.

The Tata Kisan Kendras provide innovative, all-encompassing solutions

that go beyond just offering goods and services to India's agricultural
community. These one-stop centres for agricultural solutions are
transforming rural India through their technology advancements, farming
expertise, and social devotion. Tata Kisan Kendra provides a variety of
services. The entire farming value chain is covered by the services
provided. The service packages are displayed below:
 1. Project Idea and Initiation

Tata Chemicals proposed the notion of using cutting-edge technology to

reach its ultimate goal of "Improving the quality of Life of the Farmers"
with the aim of giving the farmers with high quality services, providing
them with healthier crops, higher yields, and enhanced revenues. In an
effort to transition rural India from the era of the bullock cart to the new
era of satellites and information technology, TKK created the idea of
precision farming.

The idea required creating and putting in place an ICT platform that would
allow farmers to access markets, information, and expertise. Utilizing GIS
and additional online services created especially to cater to the needs of
farmers adds value. The GIS technology aids the farmer in fast adapting to
the varying soil and climate conditions. To meet the demands of Indian
farmers, this precision farming project makes use of current satellite and
information technology. Combining satellite imagery, census information,
socioeconomic data, and other GIS-collected information is part of the
operation. A value-added agriculture database was to be created.

2.  Project Conceptualisation
The procedures used by TKK are displayed above. TKK has been
instrumental in providing rural farmers with access to the most recent ICT
tools, knowledge about cutting-edge farming techniques, and data from
agronomist-created agri-databases. By coordinating the efforts of the
farmers and the neighbourhood TKK centres, it assists in managing and
upgrading the current knowledge base of the rural population. In order to
increase the productivity of rural farmers, TKK combines traditional
wisdom with modern agricultural methods. It also routinely assesses
farmers' performance and offers helpful recommendations by holding
workshops and clinics to spread the most recent information.

3. Total solution to farmers through GIS

In many states, the productivity of agriculture is low. The goal of this
project was to create a platform that would enable farmers to access
support services and value-added services. In order to meet the needs of
Indian farmers, the precision farming initiative of the Tata Group makes
use of contemporary satellite and information technologies. Combining
satellite maps, census data, socioeconomic data, and other data gathered by
geographic information systems is what the operation entails (GIS). The
objective is to build a useful agricultural database.

3.1 What is GIS?

Geographic information systems, or GIS, are computerised systems that
collect, organise, process, and create maps and geographic products based
on data from various sources. Many governmental and private
organisations utilise GIS to collect information about certain locations and
areas.

Maps are a great way to convey complex information. Because digital

maps can be altered to show the changing environment, they are superior
than traditional maps. These maps can be made even more useful by GIS
by being "intelligent." It works by placing data on images of the earth's
surface to transform them into tools for in-depth analysis.

GIS is used by the Tata Group's precision farming concept to handle and
analyse data gathered from multiple sources using both advanced and
basic methods. Data from censuses, tax returns, socioeconomic surveys,
satellite images, soil maps, and market studies are among the information
thus gathered. The project's foundation is made up of these elements.

Satellite Mapping: Satellites that orbit the Earth are equipped with
sophisticated remote sensing technology that captures photographs of the
Earth's surface as well as other important data about the condition of our
planet. These photos may spot changes in the topography, climate, and
soil, which aids in earthquake, flood, and hurricane forecasts.

Additionally, satellite imaging can be used to predict crop yields, monitor

the spread of insect assaults across states, and identify inefficient farming
techniques. Additionally, satellite mapping—the creation or revision of
maps—uses satellite imaging. The benefits of making such maps are
numerous:
• Rapidity – In less than an hour, satellite mapping can produce images of
a state the size of Uttar Pradesh. A equivalent exercise with an aeroplane
would take months to complete, and the results would be less complete.
• Accuracy – thanks to advancements in satellite imaging technology, we
can now achieve an accuracy of just one metre.
• Flexibility — Satellite mapping enables the GIS system to be updated as
soon as changes occur in topography, soil conditions, land ownership, or
other factors.

Remote sensing is the process of gathering information mechanically or

electronically from a distance. For distant sensing, three things are
necessary:
1. Sensing devices or sensors (e.g., "hear").
2. A platform on which to place these tools.
3. A target that requires "sensing" or analysis.

When a man looks through a telescope at a distant object, he serves as the

platform, the telescope serves as the instrument, and the distant item serves
as the target.

Aerial photography from an aircraft can be used for remote sensing, but
using advanced instrumentation on orbiting satellites is the ideal method
for some types of research, particularly those pertaining to the Earth, its
geography, geology, and weather patterns.
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED
 JIO PHONE

When it launched, India had an estimated 500 million feature phone users,
mostly scattered across semi-urban and rural areas. The smartphone
revolution had eluded them. Consumers in these areas would upgrade from
one feature phone to another year after year.
This was also the market segment that had garnered the least amount of
attention from phone manufacturers, witnessing minimal innovation over
the last decade. It was a space ripe for disruption, and Reliance went after
this large, untapped, and under-served segment quite aggressively. 

In 2017, it was ‘effectively free’ — indicated by the ₹0 on screen — that

could be availed for Rs 1,500 (refundable after three years if the handset is
returned). 

In 2018, the company launched JioPhone 2, a QWERTY-led 4G feature

phone. Changes included a higher price tag (Rs 2,999), a new form factor
(which resembled a BlackBerry Curve), a larger display, and additional
apps.

Reliance The debut of Jio and Google's 4G smartphone JioPhone Next,

which has been postponed until Diwali, might revolutionise the media and
advertising sectors. Jio and Google hope to connect the next 300 million
Indians to the internet using the most affordable smartphone available.

Reliance According to analysts, Jio's respectable rural performance was

fueled by the strong rural customer demand for its more affordable offers
on its 4G feature phone, JioPhone, which its more established competitors
couldn't instantly match.

https://yourstory.com/2020/06/mukesh-ambani-bridged-india-digital-
divide-jiophone-reliance/amp

https://www.exchange4media.com/digital-news/jiophone-next-to-bring-
300m-new-rural-users-online-time-to-dial-up-digital-marketing-
115955.html
 RELIANCE FOUNDATIONS
The flagship programme of the Reliance Foundation, Bharat India Jodo,
launched in 2010, helps underprivileged communities in India by
enhancing their quality of life and means of subsistence. The strategy
focuses on working in the areas of water, food and nutrition, livelihoods,
and market connections while encouraging communities to take collective
action toward sustainable livelihoods.

The initiative has mentored 30 Farmer Producer Groups and developed

and strengthened more than 550 village-level community-based
organisations (FPO). Building on its direct action experience, the initiative
was expanded to 3900 villages in 2018, facilitating sustainable
development for more than 3 million people across 12 states.

RELIANCE MONEY

A sizable rural community

More over half of the people in India live in rural areas. The World Bank's
Collection of Development Indicators estimates that India's rural
population was 66.46% in 2017.

With such a large population, you have plenty of room to select and
categorise your target market according to age and demographics. Even if
you can only reach 2-3% of this people, it will greatly expand your
clientele and greatly increase your earnings.
Faster pace of consumer growth than in urban areas

The consumer growth rate in rural India has exceeded that of metropolitan
areas due to an increase in government spending on infrastructure. In FY
2018, rural India's annual consumption growth was 9.7% compared to
urban India's 8.6%.

they did in the past on a variety of goods such consumer durables, food
and drinks, health care, and personal care. This growth rate is anticipated
to continue in the future days as rural consumers' shifting lifestyle choices
combine with rising levels of income and knowledge. Utilizing this growth
rate and growing your business in rural areas might help you dramatically
increase your company's revenue.

Increased development of rural infrastructure

Infrastructure in rural areas has recently undergone considerable

improvement. For instance, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
(PMGSY) first phase's completion target year has been moved up from
2022 to 2019.

https://www.reliancemoney.co.in/planning-expansion-targeting-rural-
india-can-reap-rich-dividends

In 2007,

The organisation, which offers goods from mutual funds and insurance
companies, plans to establish 10,000 franchisees throughout India by the
conclusion of the current fiscal year. According to the company, each
franchisee location will employ five young people from the area.

Following up on its franchisee effort, Reliance Money will roll out 10,000
Internet-enabled trading kiosks across the nation, the largest rollout of any
company internationally, to let its clients to deal in equity, commodities
futures, mutual funds, and initial public offerings (IPOs).

https://www.livemint.com/Money/aQlRBPC5KKsDXVuhGjES2M/
Reliance-Money-bets-big-on-villages-plans-10000-rural-outl.html

In 2013,
In order to establish a network of businesspeople for the marketing of
goods like insurance and mutual fund schemes to villagers, Reliance
Money, the distribution company for financial products owned by
Reliance Capital, has inked a deal with the non-governmental group Rural
Relations.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/reliance-money-
inks-deal-with-rural-relations-107081300030_1.html

Reliance Communications has unveiled significant strategic initiatives

with the goal of increasing Internet and mobile telecom penetration in rural
India. This is consistent with the business's goal of closing the digital
divide.

According to a statement made by RCOM, the blueprint for rural enablers

is built on a three-pronged approach. In 500,000 villages, the
GrameenVAS effort will "drive internet penetration across rural and
suburban terrain, concentrate on high impact machine-to-machine
solutions, and give value-added services specific to rural needs."

There are currently more than 125 million wireless subscribers in rural
India. Rural India is where the next surge in telecom expansion is
beginning. RCOM is dedicated to driving this exponential expansion
through new and ground-breaking service offerings and rates, with the
rural base set to treble in the upcoming years.

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/reliance-communications-to-
penetrate-rural-india/507261/

Reliance and FAARMS Work Together to Deliver Curated Insurance

Solutions for Rural India

In India, FAARMS is a one-stop online marketplace for farmers to buy all

farming-related supplies, including seeds, agrochemicals, equipment, and
animal feed.
Start up in agritech FAARMS has introduced tailored digital insurance
solutions for the rural population, in particular farmers, in partnership with
Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd. (RGICL), one of the leading
private sector general insurance companies in the nation. The partnership
intends to give the nation's uninsured citizens complete financial safety.

In India, FAARMS is a one-stop online marketplace for farmers to buy all

farming-related inputs, including seeds, agrochemicals, machinery, and
animal feed. Farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Rajasthan, Gujarat, and MP are currently connected to it.

A single-point online marketplace for farmers is called FAARMS. Under

the terms of this partnership, anybody living in these areas—not only
farmers—can easily access and select from a variety of health and cattle
insurance options on the FAARMS app by just pressing a button on their
cellphones.

https://krishijagran.com/industry-news/faarms-collaborates-with-reliance-
to-provide-curated-insurance-solutions-for-rural-india/
 FUTURE GROUP

Kishore Biyani formed the Future Group, an Indian conglomerate with

headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. With well-known grocery chains
like Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, as well as lifestyle retailers like Brand
Factory and Central, the corporation is renowned for holding a great
amount of influence in the Indian retail and fashion sectors. The group is
also well-known in the integrated food and FMCG manufacturing
industries. Two of the Future Group's operating firms, Future Retail
Limited and Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited, rank among the top retail
corporations listed on the BSE in terms of assets and the National Stock
Exchange of India in terms of market capitalization.

FIRST AADHAAR WHOLESALE OPENED BY FUTURE

VENTURES IN KALOL

Aadhar Retail, which it acquired from Godrej in 2008, served as the

platform via which the Kishore Biyani-backed Future Group began
operating its cash and carry operation in rural India.

https://www.afaqs.com/company-briefs/8986_godrej-aadhaar-launches-
agri-services-cum-rural-retail-stores-in-gujarat
https://www.dainiktricks.com/2022/02/what-is-aadhar-super-market-in-
hindi.html

https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/future-group-buys-
70-stake-in-godrej-aadhaar-108033000016_1.html#:~:text=Kishore
%20Biyani's%20Future%20Group%20has,CEO%20Kishore%20Biyani
%20told%20PTI

Aadhaar Retailing Limited, a subsidiary of Future Ventures, on Monday

opened the first "Aadhaar Wholesale" store in Kalol, 30 kilometers from
Ahmedabad, to kick off the company's rural wholesale and distribution
operations.
To meet the expanding consumer demand in rural India, 65 wholesale
stores will be opened across the country.

The 1500 SKUs at Aadhaar Wholesale outlets, which serve rural retailers
and "Aadhaar Retail" franchisees, include processed food, personal and
home care products, general items, and kitchen equipment. For instance,
the Kalol shop would provide employment for 500 local franchisees and
rural retailers.
Future Group and the Gujarat Government signed a Memorandum of
Understanding in 2011 to work together on numerous initiatives aimed at
generating income and jobs in rural areas. According to a news release, the
company anticipates growing its business through this format to about Rs
4,000 crore in the near future.

"Aadhar Wholesale will provide small merchants with everything they

need to operate their businesses under one roof, enabling their
participation in the contemporary distribution infrastructure to grow their
businesses," stated Kishore Biyani, Group CEO of Future Group.

Godrej looks to Future Group tie-up for rural retail

According to reports, the Godrej Group and Pantaloon Retail are in

negotiations to form a joint venture for Godrej Aadhaar, a rural retailing
programme, and Nature's Basket, a specialty food retailer.

According to those familiar with the situation, the agreement is anticipated

to assist Pantaloon Retail in advancing its aspirations for rural retailing.
The move would assist the Godrej group in attracting the right capital
needed to scale up the specialized retailing models and turn them into a
profit-generating enterprise.

A wide range of services, like as basic meals, groceries, clothing, shoes,

furniture, kitchenware, home appliances, banking, postal services,
pharmacy, and more are provided to rural households by Godrej Aadhaar.
Farm-fresh produce and fruit, fine wines, cheese, hand-made pasta, cold
cuts, seafood, jams, ready-to-eat sweets, condiments, and spices are all
sold by Nature's Basket. Aadhaar and Nature's Basket, the business' urban
retail location, work together effectively.
AADHAAR WHOLESALE CENTRE

The Future Group company Aadhaar wholesale Trading and Distribution

Limited is developing a digital wholesale and distribution business for the
Future Consumer brand portfolio, which currently includes more than 150
brands.

Aadhaar will function as a real-time, data-driven, digital Business to

Business platform, bringing modern analytics and operations to a business
(General Trade and Informal) that has historically been conducted by
intuition.

Retailers, store owners, dhaba owners, restaurant owners, service

providers, and institutions in semi-urban areas are all served by Aadhaar.

The Indian states of Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh will
all use Aadhaar.

BUILDING FOOD INFRASTRUCTURE

INDIA FOOD PARK, TUMKUR, KARNATAKA

The dynamics of the food processing industry are shifting as a result of

FCL's INDIA FOOD PARK's unique food infrastructure. This cutting-
edge food park, which was established in collaboration with the Ministry
of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, enables end-to-end
food processing along the value chain (grading, sorting, pulping, packing,
and distribution) from the farm to the market. The enormous park, which
spans 110 acres of land in the Karnataka region of Tumkur, is outfitted
with top-notch food processing units, storage facilities with a capacity of
22,000 tonnes, a cold storage unit, and on-site pulping, milling, flouring,
spice, and dal units. India Food Park allows the park's resident food
processing businesses to operate through a single window system.

The Kolar and Shimoga districts, which are abundant in millets, oilseeds,
vegetables, and fruits, surround the Tumkur region. Farmers benefit from
the park since it eliminates the effort of contacting several vendors and
selling their crops to a single point of contact.
With improved packaging, sorting, and distribution, India Food Park is
bolstering FCL's line of well-known brands in the commodities and value-
added sectors. It is designed with the greatest equipment to enter emerging
food categories, including those currently not produced in India, such as
branded fruits and vegetables, canola and rice bran oils, frozen food, and
processed food.
BRAND CAMPAIGNS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJOCgJIOSkM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV1gqz57iXQ

AGRI-SOURCING

One of the top agri-sourcing businesses in the nation is run by FCL. 51

centres are used to source the golden harvest of Indian farmers, which
includes rice, sugar, wheat, oil seeds, pulses, dried fruits, spices, and much
more. These items are then graded, put through quality inspections,
processed, packaged, and distributed.

AADHAAR SUPERMARKET

Part of the Future Group, Aadhaar Super Market has more than 133
locations in Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. In rural and
semi-urban parts of the Indian States, Aadhaar Super Market offers its
customers a contemporary shopping experience.
Aadhaar SuperMarket also operates as a cash and carry, and it is very
interested in opening franchise locations that will sell a variety of goods of
the highest quality, value, and pricing.

In the countryside of India, Aadhaar Wholesale Center is now fostering

entrepreneurship prospects.

Eligibility for the franchise

 anyone who is a permanent resident of a town or village with a

population of more than 8000
 somebody available to work in a retail supermarket while sitting
 possessing (either owned or rented) space of at least 600 square feet
 a desire to develop one's business.

AADHAAR MITRA'S BENEFIT.

 association with India's largest store

 Using the most cutting-edge and effective retail design possible
 full instruction and backend support
 Expert selection planning from Future Group
 High margins are ensured with a strong mix.
 Just-in-time replenishment from the effective supply chain of Future
Group.
https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/lifestyle-and-retail/5740-aadhaar-
retail.html
THANK YOU!