Case Presenting

On
E-Choupal Initiative of ITC
Presented By,

Group-3 :

Syam Gopal (22007)
Veneela (22018)
Sohail Afzal (22032)
Suresh (22079)
Vinay (M8-06)

Introduction: Revolutionised
Services in India
Technology is growing day by day and it has eliminated the geographical
barriers to communication.
Technology has made possible things which earlier we can only dream
about.
Technology has brought the world at our fingertips and has proven
knowledge is power.
But this revolution only helped urban India to grow and the rural India
which account for two - third of the populations was not benefits from it
Due to lack of resources and unwillingness goverment does not promote
technology in rural sectors.
Private sector also was not interested in promoting due to less return on
investment.

ITC e-choupal
Origin: June 2000
E-Choupal is an initiative of Indian Tobacco Corporation (ITC) Limited (a large Multi
Business Conglomerate in India) to link directly with rural farmers for procurement of
agricultural/aquaculture produce.
The primary objective of the ITC was to increased the empowerment of the rural farmers.
Target Area: So far 2020 choupals 12,000 villages, 1.3 million farmers. In MP there are
1400 choupals, spread over 6000 illages covering 6,00,000 framers. E choupal also has
presence in states lip UP, AP and Karnataka.
Organizations involved: Wholly funded by ITC. Has government officials in the
governance process and other agricultural institutes have been roped in to provide expert
information
E- choupal is operated by a operator , a literate person elected from the village farmers and
act as a interface between ITC and illiterate farmers and retrives information for them.


Designed to address the rural problems of:
1. Fragmented farms
2. Weak institutions
3. Involvement of intermediaries
4. Information Asymmetry

Mandi Operation Process

Disadvantages:

- Long distances between mandis
- Monopolization of information by the trader communities
- Fragmented payments by traders to framers
- Long chain of intermediaries involved

E- choupal advantage

The E-Choupal system gives farmers more control over their choices a higher profit
margin on their crops and access to information that improves their productivity.
It enables farmers to obtain information's on mandis prices and good farming
practices, and to place orders for agriculture inputs.
By providing a more transparent process and empowering local people as key nodes
in the system. ITC increases trust and fairness.
1) What are the different kinds of services that can be provided by the
E-Choupal platform, Keeping in mind the needs of rural Consumers?
Selling Consumer Products (FMCG /Non FMCG)
Providing Loan to farmers
Providing information about wheather forecast.
News: Farmers with the help from sanchalak of e-Choupal, can surf the
internet and read locals newspapers, can access latest information to keep
them updated on the computer kept at e-Choupal.
Agri-inputs:The e-Choupal provides a number of agri-inputs like seeds,
fertilizers, insecticides/pesticides. The e-Choupal tries to provide best
quality seeds of major crops as per their demand/requirement.
Communication (E-mail) : To convey or resolved queries sanchalaks can
used chat rooms to chat with other sanchalaks and ITC managers.
The facilitators of e-Choupal also educated the farmers about various
insurance schemes and their sources, especially crop insurance provided
by bank and other financial institutions.
General interests: The e-Choupal facilitators also provide Information about
cell phones, entertainment services like movie trivia; rent CDs,music
download, sports news and a variety of other utilities on demand.


The problems encountered while setting up and managing these are
primarily of infrastructural inadequacies, including power supply, telecom
connectivity and bandwidth, apart from the challenge of imparting skills to
the first time Internet users in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India.


How to reduce/overcome above bottlenecks:

Maintaining good Infrasture & Power Supply facilities.
Provide proper training and Creating awareness about Internet & How to
use?
Maintain good Communication with farmers.
Treat them as Goods suppliers rather than employees.




2) How can the Bottlenecks be removed for ensuring smooth functioning of
such platforms ?