Is this the time to look back and see what ‘Project Shakti’ has achieved so far? For HUL, the FMCG giant, there is always a pride in seeing the progress which ‘Project Shakti’ haS shown in past few years.

The mission of reaching out to each and every rural consumer through Project Shakti was looking like a mammoth task in the initial years, but HUL through its proper planning and commitment to make that initiative count has been able to make a difference in the lives of millions of folks in Rural India by offering them an opportunity which they were waiting for.

Project Shakti was a strategic vehicle of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to achieve better rural penetration. Today it contributes in a major way to the overall sales of this FMCG major. This innovative channel of distribution of company’s products to rural consumers has been successful because of its ability to reach out to people living in even remotest of areas. It has a huge network in villages, districts, and has thousands of entrepreneurs along with millions of rural consumers.

The Project aims to cover 5 lakhs villages and is gunning for having one lakhs entrepreneurs under its belt by the end of 2010. It is more of a win-win initiative as it not only helps in catalysing the development in Rural India but also benefits the overall sales of HUL by reaching to 600 million.

The whole project works on three inter-connected initiatives:

• The Shakti Entrepreneur Programme: It helps in creation of income-generating capabilities in the rural women by offering them micro-enterprise opportunities which can be sustainable in the long term.
• The Shakti Vani Programme: This programme deals with spreading awareness about practices in health and info about hygienic issues. This has been phenomenal in terms of improving the quality of life in rural India.
• The iShakti Community Portal: This offers relevant information about empowerment of rural communities.

The proper integration amongst above three initiatives has been the major factor behind the success story of Project Shakti. Its reach can be easily measure by the fact that almost eight households in every ten use products of this FMCG giant.

It is often said that when you are leader in the market, you always look for new avenues, new areas for better opportunity. This is exactly what HUL did. They had market leadership in 2004-05 and this project gave them an opportunity to tap the largest untapped market in India.

Being the front runner in entering into Rural India, the past has been full of success for Project Shakti. The next million dollar question would be- What next? Is implementing the concept in hinterlands of other countries are on cards?

Rural India could prove to be a niche which World Tourism is looking for. It has much more to offer to Indian tourism due to its rich tradition of arts, culture and crafts. There is a need to market the concept of Rural Tourism in a way which can attract the foreign tourists who believe in getting more knowledge about the traditional ways of rural life, art and culture.

There is a doubt on the viability of the Rural Tourism concept amongst the few activists. But if we turn the pages of history, we will find that even though there is no marketing efforts to lure tourists, there are thousands of tourist visiting Rural India especially, rural villages in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Southern parts of India every year.

The Government of India has also identified the Tourism as one of the major sources of employment generation in the Tenth Plan. Recently, The Union Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with UNDP has come up with Endogenous Tourism Project that would be linked to the existing government schemes targeted towards promotion of Rural Tourism. Around $2.5 million is being committed towards this project, as per UNDP sources. Through this fund UNDP will try to look for capacity building, development of local communities, encourage NGOs for better involvement in communities and would look for Public- Private Partnerships. At the same time, the GoI will try to develop necessary infrastructure required for offering better experience to Rural Tourists.

Indian government has identified some 31 villages across the country for promoting Rural Tourism in India. These villages have been given preference because of availability of required infrastructure. There are many more villages which would also become the part of Rural Tourist Spots once adequate infrastructure is developed.

The most promising move made in terms of Rural Tourism is by State Government who themselves have come forward to attract rural tourists. This pilot project on endogenous tourism is rightly undertaken through the participation of both central as well as state governments and all other stakeholders likes local NGOs and concerned district administration.

This move to promote Rural Tourism will surely help India in earning more and more money in foreign exchange. It is going to hasten the socio-economic development of the rural people as well. It will give rural folks to interact will foreigners and will help them to learn things from the outside world. It will surely help in boosting employment opportunities in rural India.

Good to see, one more institution coming forward to help poor rural farmers. This time, it is Housing Finance major HDFC Ltd. who is targeting the rural segment by offering credit facilities to farmers belonging to middle income group and traders. This loan is given against the properties which can be mortgaged.

HDFC Ltd is getting a enough support from the experience of SKS Microfinance in rural sector. Through this relationship, SKS Microfinance will offer loans for both extension and improvement of dwelling units that would generate good income for such rural farmers.

In this arrangement, HDFC would act as technology partner who will also provide the first tranche of Credit of Rs. 10.00 Cr. This credit limit to SKS Microfinance will ultimately be utilized for funding of more than 1250 members with an average ticket size of Rs. 80,000. Only those clients who have relationship of more than 3 years with SKS Microfinance are eligible for this scheme.

HDFC Ltd. is doing pilot project through the help of 10 branches in AP. The interest rate would be flat 21 percent while the tenor of the lon would by 3-5 years. The initial corpus of Rs. 10 Cr would be absorbed in the system within 9-10 months.

For HDFC Ltd, entering into rural market with the help of experienced players like SKS Microfinance would always be boon. Looking at the complexities involved at the grassroot level in Rural India, it is always advisable to get support of any Microfinance Institution or any organization who has been there in the rural market for long and has sufficient knowledge of the particular region.

How often do you see a rural person talking on mobile? Isn’t it a rare site? But looking at the way, telcos are entering into rural market, those days are not far away when you see everybody in rural India is doing chit-chat on mobiles.

The folk in Rural villages,Puliyampatti and Nambiyar,of Coimbatore will shortly going to hear the tones of mobiles as AIRTEL, a leading telecom service provider, is launching several Handset Bundle Offer Van (HBO Van) so as to extend its various services to Rural Masses.

This initiative is one of the latest offerings of Airtel in Rural India. It aims to further grip their existing presence in villages by offering benefits like pre-paid pack of Rs. 30 for lifetime validity.

Airtel has been setting new industry benchmarks in terms of customers and network expansion every single month. It is one such initiative to expand its network in Tamil Nadu where it has more than 8,700 towers which covers almost 95% of the state population.

The Bharti’s flagship company has been doing several strategic tie up with companies to have strong presence not only in Urban India but also in Rural India. In order to provide tailor made services to farmers in Rural market, the Company has entered into a partnership with IFFCO. Through this partnership, the Company has been able to provide Unique Value Added Service (VAS) platform.

VAS platform will provide wide variety of opportunities to farmers and rural people to not only use Mobile but eventually will help them in socio-economic development. The major offerings include voice messages related to mandi prices, farming techniques, dairy farming, animal husbandry, weather forecasts, rural health initiatives and fertilizer availability.

Time and time again, major players of several industries are making their move into the Rural Market and they are not only entrying but going quite aggressively in tapping the untapped segment. It seems Sun is rising again in Rural India !!

When I type “Rural India” in Google search engine, hell lot of links pop-up, amongst them one of the neglected links is of www.indiarural.org of India Rural Development Fund (IRDF).

Is the work of IRDF neglected in the same way as our Rural India? Why organization like IRDF who have different focus, different motive are not being noticed? The members of this organization are the change agents and they are the ones who are translating their dream of giving something back to the country of their birth.

As it is often said, knowing the cause of problem is more important than finding the remedies. IRDF have been able to realize that education is the reason why people are not coming out of their biggest problem i.e. poverty. This gives rise to several other issues like healthcare, social and economic development etc.

India Rural Development Fund is one of many tax- exempt organizations under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, Section 501 (c) (3). All the members of this organization work on a voluntary basis without expecting any financial gain out of their activity. Through the financial support of thousand of successful India living in the US, IRDF projects have been helping many poor families to come out of their financial problem by offering them proper education, proper earning opportunities, etc.

The Organization is strictly committed to their mission statement of enhancing the lives of the underprivileged Rural India primarily through education. The organization is partnering with several non-profit organizations and is ready to achieve following objectives:

• Giving access to primary as well as vocational education
• Reduction in population growth rate
• Reduction in Infant mortality rate, improvement in healthcare
• Upliftment of Rural people in terms of socio-economic development

Dr. Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United State of America has right opined that “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

The efforts of such organization are really appreciated. No doubt, getting into Fortune 500 companies is one of the dreams of every company. But companies like IRDF deserve even better place than Fortune Companies’ list. You will surely get to read more and more about such companies in near future through the medium of this site.

After performing exceptionally well in Insurance for the last 3 years in the urban market, ADA group is now planning to enter into Rural India through life insurance policies.

Reliance Life Insurance is looking at more than Rs.500 Cr business from Rural India in next three years. Seeing their current level of Rs. 10 Cr only from Rural India, the target looks a daunting task for Reliance Life.

According to Sam Ghosh, CEO of Reliance Capital, parent company for ADAG’s life insurance business, the ADA group is right on money to infuse more fresh equity of Rs. 300 Cr. in life insurance business from Rs. 2700 Cr to Rs. 3000 Cr.

To tap the huge untapped market of Rural India, Reliance is coming up with several group insurance products which would be bundled with Microfinance loans. There would be several group savings insurance policies which is going to

take the micro insurance market to the next level from simple group term products to savings linked products.

As per UNDP statistics of 2007, Micro-insurance market in India was of $2 billion which has increase to nearly $5 billion now. But there are certain factors which discourages insurance players to foray into Rural India. For instance, cost of distribution and operation cost is much higher in rural areas as compared to urban market and even the average premium size is only Rs. 65 which is quite low. Hence economies of scale, in terms of distribution network, could be the major factor which can bring down the costs.

The Reliance life is moving ahead by leveraging technology so as to reduce the transaction costs. The Company is in the process of several tie ups with Microfinance Institutions, NGOs, banks, Self Help Groups etc to reach Rural India.

The Company has launched several rural initiative in almost 10 states to create awareness about insurance products and looking at their strategic approach to tap Rural India, I believe that their long term plan of having Rs. 1000 Cr business from Rural India is not far away.

The moment I heard about the IRNA initiative to focus on the life of Indian farmers, I thought ….. this is what I should aim for in near future, isn’t it? The concept looks a small step but looking at the long term potential, it is going to earn future rewards not only for IRNA but also for poor people in Rural India.

Indian Rural News Agency (IRNA), a news agency was launched on 14 September 2008, and it is going to cover not only the good times of rural poor but also the hardtimes.  It would not only give the current situation of Indian farmers but would also find ways to help poor people out of their difficult times.

One of the senior journalists opined that presently only 20 percent of the total news is on rural consumers whereas it should be nearly 50 percent. There was the opening ceremony for IRNA and several renowned journalists likes Surendra Dubey,  Suresh Bahadur Singh, Raveendra Singh, Pramod Goswami, Yogesh Mishra welcomed this concept.

All are agreed to the point that agricultural land should not be the victim of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and middlemen should be kept apart from agricultural trade.

Rural Market in India offers a tremendous scope to Insurance players to flourish in such a huge market. No doubt that it is just a matter of time, when every other corporate would be eyeing this untapped market.

The last fiscal has not been fruitful for several industries including Insurance as well. The hard times have forced companies to think out of their boundaries and now players like Max New York  Life are charting out their strategies to penetrate Rural India.

Looking at the statistics in the last few years, almost 60 percent of the sales is coming from the towns in II,III and IV category. This has been more predominant after the year 2006. According to Executive VP- Strategic Planning and Busniness Development of Max New York Life, one can easily find 6 to 7 insurers in top 400 towns.

But in Rural India, companies need to have proper strategies to keep their tactics right. Max New York Life is planning to offer Micro-insurance policies which are tailor made policies for people in smaller towns. The Company is coming up with Max VIJAY and they have already implemented this innovative product in Agra on a pilot basis and are now foraying into remote areas of rural market.

The best part of this move is that it is being taken in a commercial manner. They already have some 139 offices in semi-urban areas which are referred as emerging markets. They already have a tie up with Indian Oil Corporation to sell insurance policies through their Kisan Seva Kendras. The Company have rented out petrol stations where seeds and agricultural products are being sold.

The major reason why companies hesitate to target Rural India is due to the fact that operational cost is high when servicing rural consumers. Looking at the same,  Max New York Life has tied up with IBM to reduce cost of servicing and underwriting of the Max Vijay Policies. This policy has won several accolades from the industry and is easily affordable.

The Company has rightly pointed out that the game of Rural India is all about Volume and to get large volumes, pricing of product needs to be at bare minimum level. This has been a  wonderful innovation carried out by Max New York Life to lure rural consumers by offering them a policy which can be easily topped up at any time for as minimum amount as Rs. 20. Their future plans of deeper penetration in Rural Market through use of Grameen Banks for distribution purpose  look even more attractive as well as  challenging.

Reference Pic : http://www.mynews.in/News/dailyimage/news/max.jpg

Taking forward its successful portfolio of small cars in Rural India, Maruti Suzuki is planning to double its outlets in two years down the line from 231 to more than 450 outlets. This will take the overall figure of outlets in the country to almost 1,000 from the current 680 odd dealerships.

Maruti has rightly sensed the opportunities lying ahead in the rural market. The distribution network in Rural India will account for approximately 50 percent of the Maruti Suzuki’s network. This step of increasing outlets is taken by keeping in mind a million vehicles sales to be achieved from domestic market. At present, company is eyeing its mid term plan of generating sales of 0.23 million cars in a year from Rural India.

According to Chief General Manager, volumes from these rural outlets are not important. The main strategy is to have presence in most of the regions and over a period of time numbers will follow eventually.

Maruti wants major chunk of his business to come from this untapped segment. They have set an ambitious sales target of 0.1 million cars in the present year.

We can easily understand the intensity of Maruti’s efforts in Rural India by the fact that they have exclusive rural marketing department which has given employment to more than 15,000 people and more than 2500 rural development sales executives are channelizing the marketing efforts.

Things are not easy as it looks. In order to make things easier, Maruti are planning to come up with special schemes and initiatives which include tie-up with panchayat members, sponsoring kabaddi tournaments and sales fairs.

Looking at the way, Maruti is marching ahead in Rural streets with aggressive marketing plans, I don’t think other players in the industry will remain quiet for a longer period.

Rural tourism is a new concept that brings across a paradigm shift in the tourism industry. The proof of concept lies in the fact that many tourists from the developed countries visit Rajasthan, Gujarat and South India to look at and experience the actual rural lifestyle. The people with interest in the traditional way of living in rural areas and mainly India owing to its rich cultural heritage prefer visiting such places if provided with proper basic facilities and good packages.
The rural visit is a unique experience for a person born and brought up in urbanized world. And unique experience is what the tourist are looking for these days. They are interested in seeing the unseen world. It is all about marketing the rural art and craft skills, and cultural.
In this information age where all the information about the famous places and tourist spots in available at a click, everyone is searching for the unexplored world as the man’s inquisitiveness never ends.
Rural tourism is not only about visiting places in the rural areas, however it include interaction with the people living there. Living with them in their style is where the experience is etched in your mind. In the rural world people are much more close to the nature and live in natural surroundings, which is much difficult to get in urban areas.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and UNDP have jointly launched the rural tourism website, www.exploreruralindia.com to market this budding concept and create awareness about the vast pool of India, which can be its strength in many ways.