ITC eChoupal Experience

My Presentation Scope

While the canvas for discussion is very broad, I will limit myself to share with you few principles of eChoupal that enabled its deployment at grassroot to become

• Sustainable

• Scalable

ITC eChoupal

A Quick Look

The eChoupal Services

Relevant & Real-time Information• Commodity prices, Local Weather, News

Customised Knowledge• Farm Management, Risk Management

Supply Chain for Farm Inputs• Screened for Quality, Demand Aggregation for Competitive

Prices & Efficient Logistics

Direct Marketing Channel for Farm Produce• Lower Transaction Costs, Better Value through Traceability

Other Services through eChoupal

Distribution of Products and Services to Rural Markets

Micro marketing• Product/Services Demos• Marketing and Brand Building activities

Pilots• Bhoomi• eHealth with Private Health Service Providers• eEducation • Rural BPO

Current Network Size

State Choupals Hubs

Madhya Pradesh 1750 43

Uttar Pradesh 1750 42

Maharashtra 900 22

Rajasthan 500 15

Karnataka 100 2

Andhra Pradesh 150 3

Choupals 5,150 127

Villages 31,000

Farmers 3,500,000

Adding Six New Choupals Every DayIntend Scaling up to 100,000 Villages in 15 States by 2010

Deployment Principles

#1 Co Creation End-to-end solution is designed collaboratively

• Identify major problems and • solve them with efficiency and transparency

When we started, it was with a FMCG approach, with reliance on • Market Research• Focus Groups

… and then the approach quickly changed to ‘Prototypes’ to enable experience and obtain feedback• An iterative approach to build models to solve the real world

problems of the Individual and of the Community

Solution : Access to Price Information – Anytime & In the Village

Solution : Transparency and Accuracy in Weighment

Solution : Modern Methods for Quality Assessment

#2 Must have a well thought out Business Model

Who Pays ?

Who Runs ?

Who Monitors Quality?

What are the Value Propositions to the Stake Holders ?

The ITC eChoupal Proposition

Step 1: Leveraging ICTs for empowered access to markets (inputs & outputs)

Step 2: Economic viability of IT infrastructure investments is justified through Win-Win business models, hence also scaleable

Step 3: Customer responsive IT infrastructure in the villages facilitates access to supplementary Education, Health, Employment, eGovernance services

ICTs make it possible ! The eChoupal Price Discovery : Farmer @ Receiving

End Vs Empowered• Value through Unbundling what was bundled together earlier

(Information & Transaction) – Unbundles

– Price information is now available at the door step without a necessity to go to mandi

– Has an option to fix price at the village itself. However, at the time of selling, still retains the freedom to go to mandi if he believes he gets better offer there.

The Input Transaction• Value through Bundling (Information, Knowledge, Transaction)

what was available unbundled earlier– Bundles

– Information on Weather and Best Practices from the website– Knowledge of ‘what to do’ from the Experts– Efficient supply platform for inputs purchase that enables

aggregation and scale efficiencies

#3 The Orchestrator

Who Orchestrates the multiple entities?• The scale and complexity inherent makes it a high

maintenance network

The Orchestrator has to ensure • There is a ‘Big Picture’ to what is initiated• ‘Changing Needs’ are tracked and are efficiently

responded • ‘Continuous Innovation’ of the business model is

ensured for its long term relevance

#4 The Infrastructure

Must have Three Tiers

• Local part for Responsiveness

• Regional level for Controlling

• Apex element for Resources Allocation

3 X 3 eChoupal Infrastructure

ICT Kiosk with Internet Access• In the house of one trained farmer, Sanchalak • Within walking distance of target farmers Link

Warehousing Hub / Store • Managed by the erstwhile middleman, Samyojak• Within tractorable distance of target farmers Link

Collaborative Network of Companies• Orchestrated by ITC • With a Pan-Indian presence Link

#5 Capability Building

Build Customer Orientation right across the Chain• “Customer is the reason”

… and also the necessary Functional and Process skills• Working Capital• Demand Creation / assessment

… along with the Soft Skills• Feedback• Quality / Customer Service

Taking ICTs & Biz Models to Rural India

Training

Taking ICTs & Biz Models to Rural India

Power Connectivity

Website

eChoupal Sagar

Thank You

ITC Limited

Thank You

visit www.itcportal.com for more details on ITC eChoupal