Market Access through Rural
ICT Kiosks
Scope of the ICT enabled platform
• A village can be engaged both as a consumer as well as supplier/
producer for products and services.
• Market access, in this context, will address the following servies or
products
– Inbound services (for village consumption)
– Outbound services (village production)
• The discussion will be on how ICT intervention creates and
promotes market access.
Opportunities for ICT intervention – village consumption
• A company’s market access in a village for a product/service is influenced by the
following factors
– Measuring market potential (untapped markets)
• ICT intervention revolutionizing market research and kiosks role in it
• Integrated rural database
– Infrastructure constraints increasing overheads and price
• E commerce – advantages and disadvantages
• Point of presence – value addition through ICT
– Market sensitization (awareness creation etc)
• Creating demand for a new product
• advertisements (non media)
– Learning consumption patterns (feedback)
• Capturing dynamic consumption patterns (feedbacks etc)
• ICT intervention Vs traditional methods
• The failure of a company in securing market access in a village results in the
demand being met by unorganized sector.
Opportunities for ICT intervention – village produce
• The market access for a village produce today is restricted by the following
factors
– Measuring market potential (awareness and outreach)
– Infrastructure constraints increasing overheads and price (limitation of
mandi system)
• Corporate can partner with village production entities to create market
access in an organized manner
• Human resources can also be included as one of the services which can be
provided by the village economic system. In this case, companies can build
distributed manufacturing hubs and make use of the surplus work force
ICT enabled trade hub
• The ICT kiosk in a village can also be described as trade hub for inbound
and outbound services and products
• How does running multiple services under one roof affect market access for
all traders ?
• What role does the credibility or brand name of the ICT kiosk play in
promoting services ?
• Contribution of ICT enabled trade hub in promoting organized supply and
delivery channels ? (ex: eBay encourages unorganized trade)
challenges
• How does the SCA market the kiosks to companies with a rural interest ?
• How are service specific requirements met with, in a kiosk system ?
– Technical
– Capacity building
• How does a marketing / manufacturing company integrate with the village
for procurement / distributed production, through ICT kiosks ?
• How does a VLE position himself in a model when a new service that
requires skilled workforce is launched through the kiosk ?
Thank you