ITC E-choupal

By: Group 8 Rakesh Nandan Balram Kumar Deepti Manisha Ruchi Kumari

What according to you are essential conditions for ITC e-choupal centre to be successful at village level and for the project to be successful at state/national level?

Village Level: Distribution at Low cost Wide reach in Rural India Good Quality of Products and Services Right prices to consumers Continuous availability

State/national level: Sharply Targeted Consumers Product endorsement Education on product usage and benefits to sanchalak Brand building at low cost Superior understanding of rural consumers

What possible benefits can ITC in general and ITC-IBD in particular derive out of this project?

ITC Better supply chain for ITCs Food & Agri Businesses Costs, Quality, Traceability Access to the Underserved Rural Markets
ITC IBD New ITES Business Opportunities Health, Education, Entertainment

What are the possible challenges and your suggested strategies to overcome those?
Illiteracy about computer in rural areas as well as rural population has

lowtrust on electronic system.

Selection of an educated, intelligent, reliable and matured person as a

sanchalak.
Improper knowledge about rural market.

Threat of intermediaries (Adatiya & Brokers).

Improper and complex user interface on e-choupal. Lack of rules and regulation related to electronic choupal. Mistrust about inspection, testing and weighing of produce on centres.

Strategies as suggestion:
Adopt the ability to determine the grades of the crop in the field which

commands the price premium for the crop.

Build the concept of traceability into the supply chain which will allow to

address the food safety concerns.

Provide the service as market-place for commodities where ITC is not a

sole buyer. It will reduce the operational cost of e-Choupal such as IT infrastructure and transaction costs.
Marketing value added products and services to rural INDIA , in ad-

dition to marketing agri inputs, through e-Choupal system.

Sourcing IT-enabled services from rural INDIA. Telemedicine, eco-

tourism , traditional medicine and traditional crafts are some of the services that can be sourced from rural INDIA.

What possible benefit(s) does each of the stakeholder have from the project?
Shareholder Value through Serving Society. Also, the infrastructure serves as a reliable

delivery mechanism for resource development initiatives (e.g. water, animal management).

What is the next level for this project? Where do you think it goes from here?
ITC should plan to use its eChoupal infrastructure

to sell third-party products, provide rural market research services, and enable e-governance. This way it will go for sustainability for its initiative. ITC eChoupal should provide quality education, health and financial services to the rural areas using its physical and digital infrastructure to maintain further good relationship with consumer.