Rural Marketing In Indi

Rural markets in India: Rural Markets are defined as those segments of overall market of any economy, which are distinct from the other types of markets like stock market, commodity markets or Labor economics. Rural Markets constitute an important segment of overall economy. In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of the green revolution in India, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has taken shape.

Companies Projects : SHAKTI - Changing Lives in Rural India

Hindustan Unilever's Project Shakti is a rural initiative that targets small villages populated by less than 2000 individuals. It is a unique win-win initiative that catalyses rural affluence even as it benefits business. Project Shakti impacts society in two ways – the Shakti Entrepreneur program creates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged rural women and the Shakti Vani program improves quality of life by spreading health and hygiene awareness.

ITC E-Chaupal : Initiatives being taken by ITC and other companies to tap into the emerging rural India market. ITC has sort up over 2,000 e-choupals across India at a cost o about Rs 1.5 lakh (USD 3,400) each in villages. It is now adding 5 a day, with plans to cover 100,000 Indian villages in 5 years (India has a total of 600,000 villages). ITC first aims to help improve farmers' incomes by: -- Wiring rural communities with computer access to its e-trading platform. -- Offering better on-line prices than auctions for produce. -- Providing quality seeds and on-line agricultural advice.

Next, it aims to help its own business by :

-- Growing its commodities business overseas -- Gaining access to rural consumers -- Selling goods and services back to the farmers

Intel's ‘Jagruti’ program Intel launched its Jagruti program in collaboration with leaders in business, government, education, online services and internet kiosk providers with the motive of bridging the urban-rural divide and to penetrate into the rural market of India. Intel has collaborated with the Indian players like, Wipro and HCL Technologies in order to get the advantage of their presence in the rural areas. Towards this direction, Intel launched its Community PC platforms for rural India. The company plans to deploy these Community PC platforms in Internet Kiosks in the villages. These PC’s developed by Intel has been designed to withstand: -Dusty conditions -Varying temperatures -High humidity

Microsoft’s ‘Saksham’ Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd has launched a self-sustaining kiosk model initiative, 'Saksham' aimed at taking the benefits of IT to rural India. The 'Saksham' initiative will essentially be a public-private initiative which aims at developing a rural portal powered with content and applications aimed specifically for the rural segment. Microsoft will work with regional and local ISVs (independent software vendors) to accelerate the adoption of these services in the rural areas. Moreover, Microsoft plans to set up 50, 000 IT Kiosks by 2009 to provide a wide range of information and services related to the health, education, communication and agricultural aspects of the villagers. Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd has launched a self-sustaining kiosk model initiative, 'Saksham' aimed at taking the benefits of IT to rural India.

Govt. projects : E-Mitra:

This service is launched by the RAJASTHAN Government for the first time for its rural citizens, so that they can deploy the I.T. enabled benefits to its fullest. E- Mitra is State Government started projects, which soon become highly popular in the region. In year 2002, two projects came into existence namely; Lok Mitra and Jan Mitra.

Drishtee:

Drishtee is present in 5 States and is currently

available in six districts. It is a private company, which was previously named as Cyber Edge, which has the main work of developing the modules. It is present in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. It is generally suited in the Panchayat or in the bazaars. They prepare the module for the poor section of the society who cannot understand the international language.

Rural e-seva: It was initiated by ANDRA PRADESH Government. It was initially implemented in West Godavari District to deliver e-governance facility. The centers are designed with the view to provide better governance facilities to the people of the Rural India. E-seva is gaining popularity with passing days as it helps the citizens to avail the benefit of getting the certificates at their doorsteps; which is both relaxing and reliable.

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited : • To facilitate availability of electricity for accelerated growth and for enrichment of quality of life of rural and urban population. • To act as a competitive, client friendly and development oriented organisation for financing and promoting projects covering power generation,cc power conservation, power transmission and power distribution network in the country.

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) Government of India launched the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana – Scheme for Rural Electricity Infrastructure & Household Electrification in April, 2005 with the objective of providing access to electricity to all households and improving rural electricity infrastructure.