1. ITC eChoupal Creating Shareholder Value through Serving Society
Yogi Deveshwar
Chairman, ITC Limited
35th World Congress, Marrakech, Morocco
7th June 2004

2. The Context 72% of India lives in its villages
60% of workforce related to Agriculture
Agriculture accounts for 24% of GDP
Therefore, Low Rural per capita incomes
Nearly 200 Million people live at the margin

3. The State of Indian Farmer
Small Landholdings
Low literacy , Low Income
Over dependence on Rain
Weak Infrastructure : Physical , Social
Underserved on supply side
Monopoly channel on demand side
Over dependence on intermediaries
Low productivity – Low risk taking ability – Low share of consumer spend

4. Caught in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment
Low Risk Appetite
Weak Market
Orientation
Low Investment
Low Margins
Low Productivity
Low Value Addition
Caught in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment

5. The eChoupal Challenge
Break the Vicious Cycle and Kick start a Virtuous Cycle of development
A transformational initiative – to Create markets before Serving them

6. The eChoupal Solution Empower the farmer
Create Collaboration to provide quality information and extension services to build capacity to manage
Create Competition – both supply side and demand side
To Make available reliable and cost effective inputs
To Connect with markets – national & international
Eliminate wasteful and parasitic intermediation
Thus, capture larger share of growing consumer spend for the farmer

7. The eChoupal infrastructure What is it ?
ICT Kiosk with Internet Access and Local Language Content (Weather, Prices, Farming Practices etc)
In the house of one trained farmer, Sanchalak
Within walking distance of target farmers
Warehousing Hub with Internet Access
Managed by the erstwhile middleman, Samyojak
Within tractorable distance of target farmers

13. The ITC eChoupal Scale Today Vision
4100 Choupals are serving over 2.5 million farmers and villagers across villages (adding 6 a day)
Enhancing yields
Higher capture of consumer spend
Building capacities of rural communities
Vision
Reach 100,000 villages by 2010
Dealing with wider variety of crops
Pilots in watershed management and livestock management are being scaled up
Creating infrastructure for Education and Healthcare services
Enhancing Quality of Life in rural India

14. In Conclusion
Agriculture – a source of livelihood for millions of small farmers
Rural wealth creation in agriculture through securing empowerment, collaboration and competition
ITC eChoupal - a transformational initiative for sustainable development of society

15. Thank You ICC – UNDP – IBLF & Ladies and Gentlemen
For more : visit ITC eChoupal