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.