Friday, December 15, 2006
Turning the Distress Into a Win-Win Opportunity
1. Unremunerative croping practice
2. Increasing input cost due to resistance developed in the pest as a result of excessive use of pesticide
3. Lack of technical assistance in case of change in cropping pattern
4. Lack of marketing led inputs for crop planning
5. Absence of marketing support except for a few crop
6. High cost of Inputs including finance
7. Absence of risk cover in case of crop failure
8. Continuous explotation due to lack of transparency and breakdown of institutional frame work established to support the farmers
9. Increasing number of ruralites are unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Therefore the it is imperative to establish an institutional framework to cater to the aforesaid needs of the farming community which shall provide their value added services to the farmers on commercial terms. As we know that the basis of marketing starts from the identification of need thus it is a boon in disguise for the marketers having an opportunity to address to a large number of unaddressed needs to make a suitable entry strategy. Thankfully with the advent of Information and communication Technology today it is possible to develop the linkages which provides services to the farmers in increasing their income. Leveraging the ICT if a network along with neccessary contents, deliverables, service providers, vendors and physical infrastructure is developed in an organized manner, which should be packaged in a business model, there is a possiblity of another wave of developement in the rural India as we have witnessed an IT led Sunami effect in urban India in last one and a half decades. The network of IT kiosk with web based portal of following service providers can be a great stepping stone for the farmers moreover it shall new vista of business opportunies in the rural Area
internet banking for the farmers and web based financial consultancy services including loaning, insurances and investments
Tailor made Agricutlure consultancy through net for technical support in changing the croping pattern
Leveraging internet protal to provide low cost high quality agri input throug ebusiness model
Bridging the gap between producers and the bulk buyers through web based network for online procurement, contract farming, commodity exchanges, market driven production
Creating a web based classified database (yellow pages) for farmers and rural businessmen.
Creating a network of physical service providers in form of IT enabled procurement centres, transportation network, Warehouses accesible at the village level. The beauty of this network depends upon sharing of resources and optimizing the capacities and developing the entreprenuership at the village level to complete the eco system.
Single Window service delivery system of government at the village level
To achieve the aforsaid there is a need of integration of the following element to complete the ecosystem
Internet connectivity at the village level
Network of entreprenuership driven ICT enable kiosks at the village level
Willingness of the stakeholders like Banks, Insurance Companies, Government, Agri Input providers, Agriculture Consultancy providers, Procurers of the Commodities, Commidity exchange to work in tandem and be a part of the protal
Technology service providers to run the portal and work as the driving force
Small Entreprenuers to be a part of ecosystem to complete the value chain.
Government with a clear vision and high level of commitment to work as the facilitator of this concept.
The good news is that various initiatives in the country have already started in this direction with different components of the aforesaid system working in their domain independently like the Gramdoot model in Wardha, ITC eChoupal, KVK Baramati, RMAG ICICI Bank, Basix etc. so the need of the hour is that there shall be a collborative approach of all such elements and join together to form a perfect ecosystem which shall be reulting another wave of developement in the country and this time it will have a larger impact and result in social harmony.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Rural Internet Connectivity: A New Perspective
There are numerous ways through which one can realize the power of ICT for rural upliftment but the First and Foremost thing is the connectivity. It is imperative that the government as a part of it's social obligation of bringing infrastructure developement shall immediately ensure the availability of affordable broadband connectivity in each and every village of the country. The urgency of this need is being felt at the upper echeleon of some quarter of the government who are pushing this movement but still we are not able to see the desired results.
We are witnessing the discussions and deliberations on this regard at different forums since quite some time, over the form of the technology to be used viz Cordect, Wimax, 3G etc.
The government is trying to attract operators at various levels to create the infrastructure for last mile connectivity in the rural area. With the mandate from Ministry of Information technology various state governments have initiated the project of establishing State Wide Area Network (SWAN) using the relatively low cost technology in private public Partnership. Setting up of SWAN is a welcome move but the government should take the following care that
It should be implementaed in a time bound manner with utmost urgency
Government should ensure that not a single village should be left uncovered
Technology like WIMAX and 3G makes last mile connectivity possible but initial revenue generated from selling the connectivity at the village may not bring immidiate financial viablity so the governemnt should find a wayout to promote the establishment of socially important infrastructure at the village level
Connectivity shaould be given priority over populist plans like building of toilets, poverty alleviation programme, loan waiver, interest waiver etc... as it will initiate the structural change in the rural sector
The Connectivity should be made available at affordable prices and it should be treated as an essantial commodity.
With the aforesaid priorities the government should ensure that the villagers get acess to broad band within their reach. It is a high time that the connectivity is made available in the villages because the Goverment of India is already working on Common Service Centre (CSC) scheme with an objective of establishing CSCs in 100000 villages across the country in Partnership with the private players, so with so many private players in sight we shall be seeing a great leap in content and application developement for rural sector which shall be a stepping stone in bridging the digital divide in Urban and rural India. Apart from CSCs we are also witnessing the increasing usage of ICT in Procurement of commodities from the farmer, internet banking, commodity exhange (Future exchange as well as the comming up of spot exchanges), Telemedicine, Online trading, BPO, ebusiness, eGovernance, distance education through net, and all the aforesaid activities have tremendous potential in the rural economy and we can witness a new wave in growth kickstarted by rural connectivity. So today the slogan given by Late Dewang Mehta ROTI, KAPDA, MAKAN aur CONNECTIVITY seems to be pertinent.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Need for Village IT Kiosks for G2C Deliverables
- Land related issues
- education and healthcare
- Various beneficiary schemes
- Certificateion of their status
- Complaints and disputes
- Licences, permits and NOCs
- Law and Order
- Irrigation and electricity etc.
The dependency on government is more in the rural area as compared to the urban area is because in urban area most of the services are provided by the private entreprises due to attractive business potentials, whereas in the rural area, due to poor purchasing power and inadequate economic activities there is absence of private entreprises therefore the dependence of an ordinary citizen is mostly on the government for all the issues be it education, banking, transportation, communication, healthcare, employement, basic infrastructure etc. So for all the aforesaid puposes there are several departments having been established to cater to various needs of rural citizen. Thses departments are located at different places depending on the nature of tasks and a huge government machinery is deployed upto the village level to serve the rural folks. Despite of the availability of a mamoth government machinery in the name of serving the ordinary citizen we all know the fate of an ordinary citizen. Even after 60 years of independence we find that our villages are still undeveloped and there is an ever increasing gap in the developement of urban and rural India as a matter of fact the graph of developement for rural and urban India is moving in the opposite direction for most parts of the country. Newer generations of the farmers are finding it uninteresting to remain in the farming and are migrating to cities increasing the slums. Apart from poor future prospects they spend a large portion of time in the labrinth of governement machinery to get their small things done. Some of the problems can be understood by the following examples
If a farmer needs loan (as he often needs due to high risk in Farming and inadequate returns) he shall either opt for taking loans from the money lenders at a very high interest rate very often ending up in becoming a landless laboures or go to bank. He has to get his land record documents, income certificate, photographs, etc. Certain documents are required from the government machinery which are sometime a herculean task and then making innumerable rounds to bank and mid it he has to spend a lot of time and money in obtaining all these inputs teherfore the cost of loan is very high which is a detering factor.
If a student has to go for admission in higher education he has to obtain cast certificate, domicile certificates from the government and to get these certificates he has to prove his basis of getting the certificates for which he has to make several rounds of different authorities, like TC/school leaving certificate of his father, cerfificates from patwari, residence proof etc. which has to be collected from different authority and such things are issued from taluka office which some times are situated as far as 15-20 Km.
There are several beneficiary schemes of various departments like agriculture, animal husbandry, social welfare etc. on which government spends a huge amount of money but an ordinary farmer newer get to know about it, only politically connected people get the benefits. Availing such beneficiary schemes are also very difficult as the farmers has to produce a number of documents obtained from various departments. Thus a major part of their time is spent on running from pillar to post increasing to the frustration.
Fortunately Information and Communication Technology provides the solution for all such problems where with the help of Village level ICT Kiosks can work as the citizen facilitation center for all the government department by integrating there front end into a single window service facilitation centers. This can save a lot of time, money and from harrasment to the farmers who can then focus more time in it's core area of improving his farming income and if he is saved from such harrasments he will certainly develop a new approach towards development with a positive frame of mind. Even ICT can help the farmers in knowing the newer cropping pattern and it's technology and getting the market linkages to get a better price of his produce
The good news is that in last 5-6 years various initiatives has been taken by various Government authorities like setting up Taluka level facilitation centre by revenue department in the state of Maharashtra called Setu, Village level Gramdoot Network in Wardha district, Sarita project by IGR in Maharashtara etc. But the need of the hour is to establish village level IT kiosk which shall be interface for all the government departments and the entities having the objectives of providing services in the rural area rather than seperate initiative by different departments at different level. Goverment of India taking note from some of the aforesaid initiative have come up with a mandate of 100000 CSC across the country which is an initiative must be waited and watched far as this has a potential to transform the rural scenario if implemented in it's true spirit.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
ICT Application in Banking: Turn Around in the Rural Economy
- Prospecting the farmers about the Farm loan
- Counselling for various lending options and their procedures
- Helping the farmers in documentation
- Photography, Photocopying and assisatnce in the compliances
Thus the farmers can get the services similar to what we get in cities by the DSAs of banks and telecom companies who get the serces at their door step. We must be clear that it is the the accessiblity and the convinience which plays an important role in the growth of any service. The same phenomena has led to growth in Housing, automobile consumer durables, credit cat and personal finance growth.
We have some models of village level IT kiosks in the country which can be tried by the nationalized banks for the benefit of farmers. Onne such example is Gramdoot model in Wardha district of maharashtra where there are more than 70 Kiosks upto the village level having basic IT infrastructure with a dedicated person manning the kiosk on the full time basis. These kiosks are offering various eGovernance services and the most important is the land record documents which are required in getting the crop loan. Thus if banks wishes to utilize the services of this existing network bank need not do any capital investment in getting nearer to the farmers the farmers can get complete couselling from such centers and get the documentation services and go to the branch fully prepared and thereon the banks can do the due diligence before sanctioning the loans. This kind of arrangement shall be a low cost and high effect revolution in the rural banking. Bank can further utilize such kiosks for all kind of lending as well as variuos other IT enabled services off-corse by safeguarding it's interests.
Here lies a solution for our policy makers to address to the problem of lack of developement in the rural India and make Information technology an engine for growth of rural economy. With the increase in banking and public funding in the farming economy there will be more technical and manegiral skills forthcoming which shall lead to growth in the allied sectors like transportaion, primary processing, warehousing, insurance, post and pre harvesting technologies etc. which means more per capita income in the rural area more spending, better facilities, reverse brain train, more entreprenuership and decentralization of economic growth resulting in an overall growth of the economy.