First, the Story..

Age: 45, Illiterate, Stressed

Ramchand is a simple villager  living in Sahpur village, 45 km from Lucknow city

He was married early (21 actually), to Sarita, a potter's daughter who makes beautiful clay pots

Arjun, his unemployed son, has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and considers farming a waste of his intellect;

Neha, his loving daughter, is engaged to be married to Mohan, an ambitious young shopkeeper in their village

Ramchand’s mother passed away 3 years ago from not being able to reach a hospital in time while his father suffers from severe bronchitis

He owns a farm on which he sows wheat in the kharif season and rice before the rains, earning a modest livelihood of INR 5,000 every month

Meet Ramchand

Ramchand(a villager)

Neha(daughter)

Sarita(wife)

Arjun(son)

Ramchand wants to open a bank account. But his last visit to the bank left him completely confused, with so much paperwork.

Ramchand..

He wants to secure a low interest loan (bank interests are near 12% now and local money lenders charge close to 100%) for his daughter’s wedding;

Ramchand..

He wants to sell a portion of his land and buy a tractor.

Ramchand..

He also wants to find a decent job either in the village or in the city for his son but doesn’t know how to.

Ramchand..

Ramchand..

He wants to get some medical assistance for his ailing father either in the village or even in Lucknow but has no means to get there.

Mohan is Ramchand’s ambitious prospective son-in-law;

He has started a provision store in his village by borrowing money from his father and could arguably be the lowest priced store in the area;

Mohan also knows how to repair farm tractors

Age: 24, B.A. , AmbitiousMeet Mohan

What Mohan needs:

He wishes he could increase his sales by having people from surrounding villages come to him by giving them the lowest prices in the region

He could also have additional income if people heard about his skills as a tractor mechanic

He wants to find a fair-priced electrician who could light up his wedding party

Age: 24, B.A. , AmbitiousMeet Mohan

Meet Mr. SharmaAge: 40, BE, MBA, Visionary

Mr. Sharma is the Marketing Head of a large FMCG company that understands that rural India will contribute a significant portion of the next level of growth in India;

The company has launched low priced shampoo packets specifically for villagers

Mr. Sharma wants to now work with local resellers of his products to create awareness of his new shampoo in the villages as well as gather market intelligence to determine strategies for marketing new products 

Meet Mr. SharmaAge: 40, BE, MBA, Visionary

What Mr. Sharma needs:

A way to reach out to the villagers in Ramchand’s village and surrounding villages

A way to get Mohan to recommend and sell his products

A way to receive feedback from the villagers on their experience with the product and suggest improvements 

Meet Mr. NaiduAge: 58, Government official

Mr. Naidu is the Block Development Officer for the area where Ramchand and Mohan live

Mr. Naidu is a forward thinking man and wishes to digitize all registers and files maintained in his office

Mr. Naidu also has a Polio Vaccination Drive coming up and wants to make the villagers aware of the date, time and location for receiving the vaccine.

Meet Mr. NaiduAge: 58, Government official

What Mr. Naidu needs:

A permanent method to spread any government related information, schemes, policies to the community

A BPO or some low-cost, reliable data-entry operators who can digitize the data in his office

A way to reach out to the villagers in his region to make them aware of the polio vaccination drive

MeetRural Connect

An initiative of the Bharatiya Gramin Vidyalaya

 (Indian Village School)

VISION

To create a scalable, demand-driven rural information

and knowledge centre that will harness the power of

Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) to

provide a medium for the exchange of information and

knowledge between rural communities as well as serve

as a connect between rural and urban India for the

economic and social empowerment of rural families.

Our Approach

APPROACH

Phase 1: eNABLESMS Alert Services:

• Demand driven information on entitlements, government schemes, agriculture, weather and markets, education, employment, health, etc

Missed Call Services:

• Just a missed call away: In a region where every rupee counts, villagers need not spend on calls; they can give missed calls for any information required (EX: nearest vaccination center, teacher jobs, best place to buy pesticides, sell cattle or land, fill forms etc. etc.)

• Computer Training to employees. As we build infrastructure, computer training to villagers at large.

• Massive awareness drives for educating villagers on service

o Get feedback, understand needs, educate villagers on benefits

• Development of comprehensive database

o Villagers data [mobile numbers, profile, trends, needs]

o Commercial services within region [shops, mechanics, electricians etc]

• Aligning center based on feedback and demand collected

Phase 2: eMPOWER• Educate + Knowledge Transfer (possible collaboration with NGO’s and

organizations):

o Targeted training programs on Agriculture, health, nutrition, education, women's health, law at center and in villages

o Incubate learning centers for vocational training, specialized training, computer literacy

o Specialized training for Job Placements [call centers, data entry, government jobs, education services etc.]

o Build library within center and platform for knowledge exchange

• Microfinance

o Low-interest loans and credit support from banks

• Medical Services

o Basic facilities and free ambulance to nearest hospital

• Rural Radio or Newsletters to reach out to those without mobile connectivity

Phase 3: eNGAGE• Engage with Governments and Private Companies to outsource work

to the center to reduce costso Private: Data Entry jobs; BPO support services, Local language call

center; o Government: Census and Survey duties; Election duties; job card

and BPL related duties• Engage villagers to communicate with each other using SMS and

other mediums via the Centero Sell products and services to each othero Spread news and information

• Companies can now use center database to study village needs and market their products / services to villagers via the Center

• Attempt to bring center under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) of Government of India

How will we run it?

OPERATIONS• So Far:

o Survey of 5000 houses completed. o 5 boys recruited and currently undergoing training

• Center will be run completely by villagers, preferably the unemployed educated youtho Phase 1: 10 Employees + 1 Manager + Volunteerso Phase 2: 25-50 Employees + 2 Managers + Volunteerso Phase 3: 50+ Employees + 5 Managers + Volunteers

• Constant mentoring by Management and private organizations / NGOs via workshops and seminars

• Active role of Panchayat in spreading awareness, building trust and supporting services

• Eventually make self-sustainable by charging for specific services, subscriptions, commissions etc.

Our pilot project is at:

Bharatiya Gramin Vidyalaya, Kunaura Village, Dist. Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Come join us in our enthusiasm and passion to change our world

OR send us:o Ideas, suggestions and criticismso Monetary and non-monetary assistance

• Contact: Karan Dalalo E: karan.dalal@gmail.como T: +91-9833919882

SUPPORT US