Rural Inroads: A Developmental Perspective

Abstract

Rural India is a difficult business location. Transport, electric power, and information infrastructure are inadequate. Business practices are underdeveloped or outdated. Lack of access to modern resources has resulted in an undertrained workforce. Rural society is structured around subsistence and is unprepared for modern products and services. These constraints, along with many others, have discouraged most companies from taking on the challenge of rural commerce.

Yet the sheer size and magnitude of rural inhabitants have had every marketer hooked to the opportunity of turning gold by being able to sell to the rural fraternity. This engagement can serve a dual agenda: bridging rural isolation and the resulting disparities o f education and economic opportunity, while at the same time creating a potentially large profit opportunity for the organization willing to tackle the inefficiencies. The key question is how to deploy modern resources and methods to profitably overcome rural constraints? Also important are the social impacts of such an engagement.

This paper will focus on how the businesses can associate rural people in production-distribution chain to profit and improve their incomes with a goal to "Create Customers" - A Case Study Approach.