Innovations in Rural India

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"However, when farmers are helped to become self-reliant, to manage their own affairs and to manage their livelihoods, they become the strong spine of nation's democracy. Therefore, it becomes the prime responsibility of the government to nurture cooperatives."

- V Kurien, Chairman, Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL).¹

"A quiet digital revolution is reshaping the lives of farmers in remote Indian villages. In these villages, farmers grow soyabeans, wheat and coffee in small plots of land, as they have for thousands of years. A typical village has no reliable electricity and has antiquated telephone lines. The farmers are largely illiterate and have never seen a computer. But farmers in these villages are conducting e-business through an initiative called e-Choupal, created by ITC, one of India's largest consumer product and agribusiness companies."

- Mohanbir Sawhney, McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology, Kellogg School of Management, USA.²

".....we seek to partner and provide complete solutions across the value chain, from the 'seed' stage of a product to the final stage. The vast unexplored stretches of India are ripe for experimenting with technological innovation...and it is Indiagriline's objective to make it happen."

- www.indiaagriline.com.

Why Innovations in Rural India?

"India lives in her villages."A famous cliché which underscores the country's geo-demographic identity. India has more than 60,000 villages, which have contributed significantly in charting the national identity of the country. Yet, despite the progress since Independence,3 the urban-rural divide showed no signs of receding. The Gini index,4 a standard measure of income inequality had risen from 30 in 1991 to 38 in 1997 due to the wide disparity in economic growth and distribution between rural and urban India. Analysts believed that unless rural India was integrated and allowed to benefit from developments in the other sectors of the economy, the country's overall growth would fall far short of its potential.

There is an increasing demand from consumers for content delivered in various formats and through a wide range of channels.

Contents >>

1] Chairman's Speech: 29th Annual General Body Meeting on 24th June 2003, www.amul.com.

2] ITC-IBD - www.itcibd.com.

3] After years of struggle and movement against the British rule, India got its independence on August 15, 1947.

4] Measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or consumption) among individuals or households within a country deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve is plotted which compares the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the poorest individual or household. The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. A value of 0 represents perfect equality, a value of 100 perfect inequality.
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