New innovations target rural India
Indian companies are now targeting rural India with a variety of innovative and cost effective tech solutions that attempt to solve to everyday problems in our remotest villages
Indian companies are now targeting rural India with a variety of innovative and cost effective tech solutions that attempt to solve to everyday problems in our remotest villages
Indias hunger for new technology is as sharp in its countless small villages as in its shiny office towers or shopping malls and businesses are waking up to an area of massive potential growth.
Specific designs being aimed at Indian villagers include a mobile phone cash-transfer system, robust low-energy refrigerators and a clever twist on the humble kitchen stove.
Household cook Shivnath Yadav, 35, said that he regularly sends funds via his phone to his mother in the tiny village in Bihar. Its so easy to do this, and knowing that it will reach my mother soon relieves me of any tension, he said at a convenience store in Delhi where he completes the transaction.
Two brothers, Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha, used a World Bank grant to set up Eko Financial Services, which provides mobile banking services by using small shops as banking outlets. When a customer wants to send funds to a relative, they deposit cash with a shopkeeper who dials a code to get it cleared by Eko. Eko then alerts the bank to transfer the money to a shop in the relatives village, where they get the cash.
Store owner Jitender Kumar, 33, said he dealt with more than 100 cash-transfer customers a day. At present Eko has 800 outlets in three states, but the company plans to expand.
Battery Powered ATM
Also heralding a technological revolution in rural communities is an ATM that uses batteries and solar power to overcome frequent power shortages. Many banks have been reluctant to extend their ATM networks into villages, fearing that the profit margins would be too low and the security risks too high. But engineer L Kannan recently unveiled the first fully-functioning Gramateller ATM.
Villagers are not affluent but they do have money. What they dont have is a way to save money since setting up branches or ATMs in villages is not profitable for banks, he said.
My machine functions on 100 watts of power 10 per cent of a normal ATM and has back-up batteries and solar panels.
The Gramateller is also able to issue used notes rather than only freshly-printed ones, making it easier for banks to re-supply.
Kannan signed a contract this year with the State Bank of India (SBI), to supply it with 600 machines and about 300 of them are already up and running around the country.
Rural Refrigeration
The rush to meet rural demand for new tech is not limited to the financial sector or small start-ups, giants like Godrej are now working on a refrigerator aimed at the vast majority of Indians who dont own one.
We saw that the penetration of refrigerators in India is only 18 per cent and we wondered, dont the rest of them need one? said G Sunderraman, a vice president at Godrej.
Sunderraman consulted with villagers during extensive field research and came up with the Chotukool (Small Cooler) a bright red cube with top-quality insulation that can run on electricity or on a battery.
It uses thermoelectric cooling instead of a compressor to withstand the physical pressures of a rural living, and will be on sale within months. At Rs 3,750, it is still a bit expensive.
But entrepreneur Mahesh Yagnaraman, CEO of First Energy, cautions against the idea that cheap products are always a better bet.
The product needs to be aspirational. People want a product that compares to those sold in cities, said Yagnaraman, who markets the Oorja smokeless stove to village women.
The stove uses biomass pellets instead of wood or gas to cut down on indoor smoke pollution and equally importantly on the huge amount of time spent sourcing firewood.
All the business people admitted that they were yet to turn a profit, but it has not dampened their optimism. It is challenging to reach out to villages, but as an Indian company we have to target this market, if we dont, who will? said Sunderraman. In the long run, there will be growth.
* A neighbourhood shopkeeper (left) transfers money for customers using text on a phone in New Delhi