Entrepreneurship as a strategic development intervention to accelerate rural development: the case of Drishtee.

Lather, Anu Singh ; Garg, Shalini ; Vikas, Sona 等

Introduction

Drishtee Development and Communications Ltd (DDCL) (1) is a rural distribution network, which is delivering need based products and services to the rural community. The fastest growing high-tech company is Drishtee Dot Com Limited, a rural network for delivering services and related information to the village community, according to the Deloitte's ranking of 50 fastest-growing technology companies in India in November 2006 (2). DDCL, along with its group companies Drishtee Foundation (engaged in research and promotion of ICTs) and Quiver Info Services (offers Franchisee Entrepreneur based products and services), is focused at building local capacity by following a rural franchisee model to create opportunities for growth. The company started off in 2000 providing e-governance services. However after a successful field study in 2006 in Bihar completely revamped its business model and shifted its focus to long term sustainability. Thereafter, transaction-based income and wider reach were identified as major drivers for achieving the scalability. Over the past eight years DDCL has developed an expertise in rolling out a unique last mile distribution network, built on both Information and Communication Technology (ICT) application and 'ground level entrepreneurship'. The distribution network is represented by local entrepreneurs at the retail end who provide access to their community at minimum opportunity cost. To spread its network, DDCL follows a two-pronged strategy--tapping the existing rural retail points (RRPs) in the villages under the Supply Chain Management model (SCM) and creating its own network of Franchisee Entrepreneurs providing specifically designed services to the local community. With Entrepreneurship at the heart of its business model, it provides rural audience access to a wide array of products including FMCG and other durable goods and services like Education, Health and Financial services.

By establishing a supply chain which has the capacity to service many local entrepreneurs as against owning these retail points directly, Drishtee aims to create a cumulative effect in the rural market. By lowering its margin expectations, it reduces the need for a higher capital investment, and lowers the overall risk by sharing it with a large base of rural franchisees. In addition, Drishtee's emphasis on establishing a delivery network increases its first mover advantage and creates a partial entry barrier for organized retail. Its model of working with local entrepreneurs is socially and politically sensitive of the rural environment as it distributes wealth across the spectrum rather than concentrating it in the hands of a few companies as in the case of organized retail. In another interview (With Author, December, 2008), its founder and Managing Director, Mr. Satyan Mishra said that the model of Drishtee is an example where Entrepreneurship has been used as a strategic development intervention to accelerate rural development. In fact, the vision of Drishtee endorses this--'Enhancing access and empowering communities by supporting rural entrepreneurship'. As per their Annual Report 2007-08, Drishtee is present in over 12 states including the north eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu. It has also started to work in Africa along with partners.

Background of Drishtee

Like many firms that began in the infamous dot-com era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Drishtee's roots came from a strong ability to recognize opportunity combined with an expertise in designing and delivering technology. Started in the year 2000 in Dhar (Madhya Pradesh, India), Drishtee's first project was to develop and implement web-based software for Gyandoot, an e-governance initiative to deliver government services to the rural poor at their doorstep. Gyandoot rapidly gained international recognition, leading to the Stockholm Challenge Award later that year. More importantly, Gyandoot sowed the seed of Drishtee by providing the vision that ICT and rural entrepreneurship could spread across rural India, leveraging technology and new business models to offer solutions for rural development. Since then Drishtee has been recognized every year for its innovative services to the rural people.

When Drishtee first started, its service offerings were aimed largely at land holding farmers. As the model has evolved, Drishtee's focus has shifted towards improving the entire community in an economically sustainable way. Whereas some services provide immediate returns to the customers, others have future payoff to society, such as providing education to village youth to improve their employability. About 15% of an average village population takes advantage of the Drishtee services, and this percentage is likely to increase with expansion in Drishtee's service offering.

The opportunity for Drishtee was the fact that there was a huge market in Rural India for establishment of last mile distribution networks to create access to a host of government programs and services, trade, business and health services. There is a burgeoning rural demand for FMCG and Non FMCG goods on back of rising purchasing power and brand affinity. Rural regions account for 34% of the off take for FMCG products in a survey conducted by Equitymaster in February 2008. Since urban regions are already matured, the rural region is expected to be the key growth driver. Another factor is the policy initiative by the Indian Government for the increased outlay for rural development and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) facilitating larger flow of money into rural India. Like any market that has seen a demand and awareness boom, rural India has been witnessing considerable rise in purchasing power and brand recognition. A change in consumption patterns and access to communication media have made the rural market a vital cog in the sales-growth wheel, especially with demand for many categories flattening in the urban markets. Drishtee seized the existent opportunity to create an elaborate range of services for the villagers, and in fact by the villagers. The company tried to develop sustainable, trackable and scalable services, thus focused on services such as computer education, insurance and photo studio. This approach was piloted in Assam in 2004 and it became a success as 9 of the 12 franchisee entrepreneurs became profitable within six months of operation. This model was then replicated in other states like Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Haryana. As a result, the company expanded rapidly and by March 2006, it had 1000 franchisees under its network. During this period, Drishtee received USD 1,000,000 equity investment funding from Acumen Fund. The modus operandi of Drishtee was to integrate with the village economics. This was done by reducing the one-time revenues from upfront franchise fee charged to franchisee entrepreneurs in order to get a higher density of franchisees in a given service route, to minimize logistics expense per franchisee through higher density of franchisees and achieve viability on pure transactional revenue. Then they launched a subsidiary, Quiver Info Services Ltd in August 2006, to focus on developing more need based services for rural community to have a value proposition for each village household. The core issue to be addressed was to increase transactional revenue from each village touched within a service route. Finally, they launched a Supply Chain pilot to assess the possibility of increasing the volume of transaction by carrying pre ordered FMCG and durable products to existing rural retail points (RRPs) on the same route as the franchisee. As a result of these initiatives,

Drishtee has helped setup more than 4100 franchisees in rural India (as on November 2008). Drishtee is striving for the empowerment of village communities for self-development with the help of internal resources. The Organization is building a distribution network in countryside villages to provide access to villagers with ready, affordable access to information, products and critical community services. The distribution network is represented by local entrepreneurs at the retail end, who provide access to their community at minimum opportunity cost. DDCL has created a rural network with nodes at the village, district, state, and national levels. The franchisee entrepreneur has access to information and products through this network and is able to deliver fee-based services to villagers. Each franchisee reaches approximately 100 SHGs (Self-Help Groups) and delivers ICT-based health, education, insurance, and e-governance services and a broad range of goods not typically sold in villages such as eyeglasses, cell phones, daily use items, batteries and agricultural products. The entrepreneur runs a commercially viable operation by charging the community a nominal fee for the services provided. The company has a revenue sharing arrangement with the kiosk owner as well as the service providers. The key focus areas for Drishtee include

* Building local capacity to create opportunities for growth

* Generating wealth for the community

* Working on a rural franchising model that is fundamentally business-driven

* Establishing sustainability with development outcomes

* Creating significant social and economic impact through a model that is scalable and replicable across the globe for disaggregated communities

With a vision to reach out to every village in the country and beyond, Drishtee has set an ambitious target of reaching out to 10,000 villages by 2009. Over a longer period, Drishtee is geared up to become an electronic Wal-Mart for rural world. Drishtee's model works where the locations are remote. Since easy accessibility is an issue, Drishtee adds higher value. Typically these locations are such where infrastructure would always be a constraint. Drishtee aims to perfect the last mile delivery systems using technology and scientific methods. Three concepts key to their approach are Impact on community (of products and services), bottom-up approach and ability to deliver, aggregation of demand and supply chain and network and network strength. Some of their main Investors, Donors and Partners who have supported their initiative are IFC (Washington), IDRC (Canada), Acumen Fund, Microsoft, Government of India (Ministry of Panchayati Raj), Amaraja and ICICI.

Products and Services Offered By Drishtee The primary focus areas of Drishtee are Education, Rural BPO, Financial Inclusion, Rural Healthcare and Women Entrepreneurship. Table1 summarizes the products and services offered by the Company.

Education--Drishtee's objective is to provide relevant education in the villages so as to bring them closer to the level of the urban youth and to use this education to instill in them a confidence to be independent. Drishtee's main stay service for long has been computer education and over 30,000 village youth in the states of Assam, Haryana, U.P and Bihar have been trained as of end 2008. Drishtee courses have even built a brand name for themselves in several villages. CEEP is the Centre for Education & Entrepreneurship Programme that aims to spread the light of knowledge in every household of rural India. Through short duration courses at economic prices to students of all income groups, CEEP enhances both computer and employability skills. In addition to Computer literacy programme, Drishtee also has managed to successfully establish itself as a Spoken English training center with over 600 students enrolled over the past 1 year. Their programme STEP, Step towards English Proficiency, is the training and testing package of English Communication with special focus on speaking skills, keeping in view the growing demand of English in all the educational and professional areas.

Livelihood through Rural BPO--Drishtee has set up a rural BPO center in Saurath, a small village in the Madhubani district in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. They utilize the latest ICT components to provide top quality services like call center support, digitization services etc. to clients in India and the US. Drishtee is also leveraging its vast network of 4,200 kiosks across the country to provide these services from geographically distributed centers. High quality at lower costs, economies of scale and a competitive resource price, rural BPO brings huge cost savings, discourages distress migration through livelihood generation. The BPO Centre at Saurath has impacted the lives of several individuals, particularly women by providing them with jobs within their communities.

Financial Inclusion--Savings, credit for self employment, financial information and transactions are critical to the economy of any village community and its individual members. This objective of financial inclusion is a key component of Drishtee's overall objective of creating an impact in villages by creating an ecosystem of microenterprises run by entrepreneurs with a focus on women, trained by Drishtee, to provide economic opportunities to the poor. Drishtee is in a unique position with its rural network to extend banking services (It has a tie up with State Bank of India as its business correspondent, and HDFC Bank) and micro-finance services in the rural communities. This gamut of services offers a unique opportunity to address the needs of the marginalized community and is in line with Drishtee's mission of enabling the development of rural economy and society.

Rural Healthcare--Andhra Pradesh State Government Report of 2004 found that health expenditures had been significant in causing indebtedness of farmers, which in turn was a proximate cause of farmers' suicides. The Report clearly documents that very few villages in India have easy access to qualified or trained health workers or doctors. Drishtee's health solution was to appoint and train a women health franchisee at each cluster of villages on defined routs. In addition to basic emergency care, they were also trained by Drishtee for non-invasive diagnostic and path tests. This health franchisee was linked at the back end with a qualified MBBS doctor and laboratory technicians who would take weekly physical rounds of villages on the specified route and be available for telephonic consults through the health franchisee for the rest of the week. This system of making woman health franchisees had several advantages. She was accessible to at least 50% of the women population who hesitate to go to a male quack. She therefore quickly assimilated within the local eco-system. She was generally more trusted by the population and was more responsive and caring particularly for the children including the girl child. She was also available constantly in the village. The availability of diagnostics and basic pathology helped optimize the doctor time and costs. Most importantly, she acted as a powerful role model for other women in the community. Drishtee tested this model with excellent outcomes. The way forward for Drishtee is to replicate this by inducting over 2500 health franchisees. Drishtee's rural health initiative offered various advantages including increased health awareness and education to address preventive care--resulting in village savings, decrease in health risks and mortality because of regular health check-ups, villagers benefited as risk is covered to prevent drainage of capital, individual franchisee investment to create ownership and ease community's health access, risk covered for insurance companies, database of registered villagers maintained at the kiosks for further future reference.

Women Entrepreneurship--The Women Entrepreneurship Development Project is an initiative of Drishtee with IFC (International Finance Corporation) and Nike Foundation which is being implemented in partnership with Drishtee Foundation in Uttar Pradesh and Assam. The rural women are being sensitized along with their communities for engaging themselves into capacity building and Entrepreneurship programme of Drishtee. This is also a part of GBI (Grassroots Business Initiative) and SEDF (Small Enterprise Development Fund) programs of IFC where Drishtee is focusing on supporting rural women (age 18-45-years) for developing them as entrepreneurs and scaling up the socio-economic impact through Drishtee in the rural areas. The Nike Foundation supports the effort through its expertise, funds and partnerships. Also, Drishtee Foundation has worked with The University of Manchester (UK) for a programme on supporting women entrepreneurs through content development and community sensitization programme in three locations of U.P., Bihar and Haryana. The University had DFID (Department for International Development, UK) as its project partner. Drishtee launched Drishtee Haat to showcase the arts and crafts from rural India made by artisans groomed with traditional skills passed on to them from past generations. Drishtee Haat is the novel, e-commerce initiative of Drishtee to showcase the artworks of some of the rare and precious art forms from rural India. At this online store, the artisans are spurred to express their true artistic talents and give wings to their creativity. It is an honest effort to bridge the gap between buyers and many of the talented artisans across the country and allows artisans to promote their artwork on a worldwide scale. The website also brings transparency to the process and allows buyers and sellers to interact directly.

Drishtee is also piloting an e-health project on telemedicine in taking quality health services to the rural population through its network of ICT kiosks. It involves leading players in the health care domain to synergize their competency and bind it with the strength and credibility of the ICT entrepreneur to reach a broad-based section of the community. It is a pioneering effort to alleviate the conditions of the rural population who lack proper health care facilities. Drishtee subsidiary companies include Drishtee Foundation which is DDCL's non-profit arm, set up to conduct research on supply-demand of products and services to villagers who are part of the DDCL network, providing on-lending funds to the Micro-finance Franchisee Entrepreneurs and serve as a Business Correspondent to multiple banks. Quiver Info Services Ltd.: It is 82% owned subsidiary of DDCL which was founded in August 2006 to create Franchisee Entrepreneurs based products and services. It analyzes Drishtee Foundation's research and creates action plans on how to apply such research. It operates three business segments exclusively for the Drishtee network including education, microfinance and e-health. It has completed pilot projects in business process outsourcing and tentative plans to launch it throughout DDCL's network in 2009.

Competitors of Drishtee

Drishtee has its share of Competition too. These are the success stories of rural development in India, and it is a coincidence that except KVIC, they all started operations around the same time as Drishtee.

ITC e-Choupal (3)

This ICT initiative was launched in June 2000. The network of 6,500 e-Choupal centres spread across 40,000 villages as of 2008 has emerged as the gateway of an expanding spectrum of commodities leaving farms--wheat, rice, pulses, soya, maize, spices, coffee, aqua-products. The reverse flow carries FMCG, durables, automotives, banking and insurance services back to villages. The e-Choupal is one of the top five alternative channels for LIC Policy sales, and accounts for 10% of the national weather insurance market. ITC's strategic intent is to develop e-Choupal as a significant two-way multidimensional delivery channel, efficiently carrying goods and services out of and into rural India. By progressively linking the digital infrastructure to a physical network of rural business hubs and agro-extension services, ITC is transforming the way farmers do business, and the way rural markets work. A powerful illustration of corporate strategy linking business purpose to larger societal purpose, e-Choupal leverages the Internet to empower small and marginal farmers--who constitute a majority of the 75% of the population below the poverty line. In fact, 4 million farmers have been empowered through this initiative. By providing them with farming know-how and services, timely and relevant weather information, transparent price discovery and access to wider markets, e-Choupal enabled economic capacity to proliferate at the base of the rural economy.

n-Logue Communications

This Chennai-based company was founded in 2002 by Tenet Group with presence in 2005 in over 2000 villages impacting the lives of more than 4 million people. The franchisees are operated under the brand name Chiraag, focusing on fee-based transactional services. The organization structure is a 3-tier with franchisee entrepreneurs and LSPs (Local Service Providers) operating in the villages and n-Logue being the central hub. The technology framework works on CorDECT WLL connectivity for the franchisees from the access center to the villages. It provides various informational, transactional and governance services including education, training, heath, insurance, purchase of goods and services, astrology, passport services, grievance redress, form downloads and enquiry regarding the status of pending work. N-Logue was launched to fulfil the need for Internet and voice services in every underserved small town and village in India. With headquarters in Chennai, it has already successfully enabled internet access in a number of rural areas.

Azim Premji Foundation

Azim Premji Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, operational since 2001. The Foundation works in the area of elementary education to pilot and develop 'proofs of concept' that have a potential for systemic change in India's 1.3 million governmentrun schools. The Foundation focuses on working in rural areas where the majority of these schools exist. This initiative is targeted at issues prevalent in the education system, particularly content. It is operational in more than 14 states having tie-ups with various governments. Primarily, these are Computer Learning Centers (CLC) many of the franchisees provide other value added services also. Children have learnt to use many applications and create a huge, dynamic databank of content. The problem however is that the content remains unused and has not been shared.

e-Seva Centers (4)

This is a Public-private partnership between Andhra Pradesh government and Tata Consultancy Services. In 2001, there were 46 eSeva centres (with 400 service counters) spread over the Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad along with Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh. All service counters are facilitated with an electronic queuing system. Operational in more than 1400 villages, it has impacted the life of more than 20 million people. It aims to be a single window interface for the citizens to the government. Apart from providing an array of e-governance services like land records, ration cards, licenses and permits, electoral enrollment and vehicle registration, these centers also provide other informational and transactional services like bill payment, loans and insurance, purchasing goods and seeking information on government schemes, jobs etc.

Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd (HiWEL)

Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd. (HiWEL) is a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation (a part of The World Bank Group). Established in 2001, HiWEL was set up to research and propagate the idea of Hole-in-the-Wall, a path-breaking learning methodology created by Dr. Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist of NIIT. Formally called Minimally Invasive Education, this innovative methodology was first tested in a slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi, in 1999. The experiment was replicated in two other rural sites in the same year. The first adopter of the idea was the Government of NCT of Delhi. In 2000, the Government of Delhi set up 30 Learning Stations in a resettlement colony. This project is ongoing and continues to create a tremendous impact among generations of young learners. HiWEL provides three types of services namely Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Maintenance.

i-Shakti

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has been proactively engaged in rural development since 1976 with the initiation of the Integrated Rural Development Programme (5). Subsequently, the factories that HUL continued establishing in less-developed regions of the country have been engaged in similar programmes in adjacent villages. i-Shakti initiative was launched by HUL in 2001 to provide information and services to meet rural needs in agriculture, education, vocational training, health and hygiene. By the end of 2007 there were more than 45 000 Shakti entrepreneurs covering 3 million homes in 100 000 villages in 15 states in India. The franchisee entrepreneur offers information in a voice-based interactive system and the whole content is in local language.

ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute) (6)

ARTI is an NGO based in Maharashtra, founded by a group of scientists and social workers in 1996. The mission of the organisation is to serve as an instrument of sustainable rural development through the application of scientific and technological knowledge. This Institute has developed pioneering seed and irrigation techniques to help farmers. By developing, popularizing and commercializing innovative rural technologies, ARTI seeks to improve the quality of life and standard of living of rural residents of India. It has developed renewable energy resources from agricultural waste, along with low-cost, high-humidity chambers to allow seeds to grow better. Headed by Dr. Anand Karve, ARTI has also developed a drip-irrigation technique that prevents water wastage. ARTI undertakes research to study, develop, standardize, implement, commercialize and popularize innovative appropriate rural technologies with special emphasis on making traditional rural businesses more profitable and also on generating novel employment opportunities in rural areas. In 2007, they had nearly 25 standardized and field-tested technologies to offer to rural entrepreneurs through their Rural Entrepreneurship Development Centre (REDC). They have spread their activities beyond Maharashtra to other states including Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura and Kerala. Some of their technologies are also being tried out in other developing countries in Asia and Africa. With its high-impact grass-root level work over the past decade, ARTI has established itself as an internationally recognized developer of innovative and appropriate rural technologies.

KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission) (7)

KVIC is a statutory body created by an Act of Parliament, established in April 1957 with the objective of providing employment, producing saleable articles and creating self-reliance amongst the people and building up of strong rural community spirit. It implemented the Rural Employment Generation Programmes (REGP) to help eligible entrepreneurs to set up village industry units and create employment opportunities in villages and small towns. Budding entrepreneurs can avail margin money assistance from the KVIC and loans from public sector scheduled banks. REGP is the flagship programme of KVIC. The main objective of this programme is to generate employment in rural area by setting up of any new village industries availing loan from the banks and margin money (middle end subsidy) from KVIC.

Computer on Wheels

Launched in 2003, Computers on Wheels (COW) is a grassroots project that brings Internet services to rural, illiterate villagers in Mahboobnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India. COW is a mobile information delivery system involving a trained provider with a laptop visiting villages on a motorbike to provide support for agriculture management and health. The Computers on Wheels (COW) is a novel initiative taken up since 2003 by an individual developmental entrepreneur, Ms Rajeswari Pingali and has been supported by Stanford Reuters Digital Vision Program and Digital Partners Institute, Seattle, USA. COW seeks to support innovative ICT model for socioeconomic development. The objective of the initiative is to enable information empowerment to citizens by providing expanded access to information and exposure through technologies in the rural areas. To provide access to information, a motorcycle is used which is equipped with a solar-powered laptop computer and facilities like Internet connectivity, printer, digital camera, and a mobile telephone. It provides doorstep services at the village level. Seven remote villages in the Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh receive these services and get access to information on agriculture, healthcare and a range of other rural issues. The information provider, who is the facilitator in the model, visits every village once in a week for both getting queries and providing solutions to the queries collected during the previous visit. This model is at the initial stage and if successful, will be replicated in 227 villages through the involvement of village youth as information providers.

Village Knowledge Centre

MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) initiated a project, 'Village knowledge centre' in Pondicherry in 1998 with the objective of providing the rural families access to a variety of information in fostering agricultural and rural development through the use of ICT. This initiative has value-addition centre (VAC) (hub station) at Villanur, Pondicherry, which is connected to ten Village knowledge centres through a hybrid wireless network comprising computers, telephones, VHF duplex radio devices and facilitating both voice and data transfer as in 2007.

Saksham

This initiative was launched by Microsoft in 2006 to energize the rural economy in India by creating an environment for inducing a convergent approach between all the stakeholders with the broader objective to increase the Rural GDP through IT interventions. Implemented through creation of a network that provides a platform for various stakeholders to interact, jointly drive programs to reach out to the rural markets, cross leverage business models and work towards a common goal of ensuring growth of rural economy, Saksham is a scalable and self-sustaining kiosk model initiative aimed at taking the benefits of IT to rural India through public-private partnership. Through innovative business models, public-private partnership, localized content and affordable solutions, Saksham provides local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to set up and manage kiosks.

Drishtee's Approach and Business Model

Drishtee has countered the stiff competition through a strategic approach. Through a tiered franchise and partnership model, Drishtee facilitates the establishment of ICT nodes enabling access to information as well as local services to the rural community at nominal value. The business model is driven by the village entrepreneur, who owns the village node to operate a self-sustaining, profitable kiosk. The kiosk provides access to information like government records, agricultural data, and health insurance; help in filing of applications for licenses, certificates, compensations, and benefits; commodity product rates in different markets; education like computer courses, and Spoken English Programs. The entrepreneur earns by charging the community a nominal fee for the services provided. Drishtee has a fixed sharing with the Kiosk operator and a variable revenue sharing with the service providers. The Social Return on Investment Analysis shows that for every US$1 of social cost incurred, US$20 of social benefit is generated. Drishtee has successfully demonstrated this concept across various geographic regions. Each Kiosk caters to approximately 1200 households, majority of which have an aggregated income of less than $ 2 a day. With a vision to reach out to every village in the country and beyond, Drishtee has set for itself an ambitious target of reaching out to 10,000 Villages in the next 2 years till 2010. Over a longer a period, Drishtee is geared up to become a rural supply chain for last mile deliveries. Drishtee follows a bottom up approach in which all offerings are those which are needed by the rural market (such as Health and Education), and those which create an impact. Drishtee's model is entrepreneur driven where on several instances it is a woman who is transformed into an entrepreneur. Its approach is to offer products and services that it is scalable and sustainable. Each of these services has a relevance & impact. Figure 1 is a depiction of a kiosk and the services it offers.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The Business Model includes servicing existing rural retail points in the village, for the people who have to travel to urban area to buy those products which eat away their margin, with quality FMCG products like biscuits, soap and detergent etc excepting tobacco products and non-FMCG products which have market in rural area like torch, transistors, toys etc. It also includes establishing new entrepreneurs to run education, health & financial services franchisees.

Through the education franchisee to deliver computer education, spoken English and vocational courses, through the health franchisee setup women health franchisee for offering diagnostics services, Over The Counter (OTC) medicine and other health products and through the financial franchisee act as business correspondence of bank and do micro-credit to retail insurance. Figure 2 describes the business model on which Drishtee operates.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Success of Drishtee reflects in the increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and in the individual entrepreneurial success of the entrepreneurs of Drishtee. Drishtee is innovative in its concept and implementation and has been successful in facilitating the conception of a rural networking infrastructure through a tiered franchise and partnership model, which has led to the creation of entrepreneurs spread across various villages in rural India. The importance of innovation in the development of new products, services, and processes for the economy is widely recognized. Schumpeter (1934) linked innovation and the innovation process to the entrepreneur. Hoy (1983) noted that a popular image of a rural entrepreneur is that of someone who is independent, risk-taking, achievement-oriented, self-confident, optimistic, hard working and innovative, and he stressed the fact that entrepreneurship in a rural context is focused upon creating new employment opportunities in rural areas, via the generation of new ventures--and Satyan Mishra been instrumental in making many successful rural entrepreneurs. He has shown that that development of rural India is possible only by way of increasing entrepreneurship in the villages. Entrepreneurship stands as a vehicle to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment (Petrin 1990). Entrepreneurial orientation to rural development is based on stimulating local entrepreneurial talent and subsequent growth of indigenous companies (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).

The Man behind Drishtee

Born to a middle-class family hailing from village Madhubani (Bihar), Satyan Mishra carries indelible childhood memories of what the lack of sustainability can do to village betterment projects. At the age of 8, he witnessed the collapse of a successful watershed management project, aimed at blocking a wild river passing through the village to prevent floods and use the river silt to enrich eroded land, thus changing lives of many. The project failed when international funding was withdrawn. The villagers' helplessness not only rankled Mishra but also started a train of thoughts on sustainable means to improve the life of India's teeming rural populace. In 1999, when Mishra was invited to be part of Madhya Pradesh's state government e-governance project Gyandoot (8), he realized that merely installing technological infrastructure in a rural environment doesn't empower rural people. He opines that "investments in social entrepreneurship may have a higher gestation period, but are sustainable and even profitable over a period of time. It's just that the business model has to have components of both social and commercial objectives." (September 28, 2007) Drishtee was thus born of the recognition of the need to offer rural India connectivity, to liberalize its middlemandependent, exploitative economy, by backing the concept that a socially beneficial business at seed stage is a business like any other, requiring a sound business model. In Mishra's words, "The recipe is the same as for any other entrepreneurial venture/ spirit. If at all, the challenges are a bit more persistent and therefore one needs to be really passionate about creating change. We've been challenged by infrastructure, social, government policy related concerns. But the biggest hurdles were raised by people who are used to viewing villages as their fiefdom, where development can only take place through the mode of subsidy. Nevertheless, we constantly feel motivated by the support of the village community--especially women and children--who see a great opportunity in Drishtee." (September 28, 2007) The result may be small but it is measurable, which isn't surprising considering its novel approach. For this, Drishtee won the Development Market Place Award (World Bank) in 2003, made it to Deloitte's ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in India, and was one of only two Indian companies and 47 'visionary' firms the World Economic Forum counted as Technology Pioneers 2007 for their life-changing innovations. Undoubtedly, Mishra is well en route to satisfy his desire to make a substantive difference to the life of the rural poor. But India needs many more persons like him to reach out to its 600,000 villages. He opines that although servicing the rural community is a great entry point for young social entrepreneurs, more recognition at the grassroots level and within the Government and private sector would bode well for budding social entrepreneurs.

Impact of Drishtee

Drishtee provides a lower cost, efficient, direct delivery network creating cost and time savings for the villagers. Locations and distances of the traditional network prove a constraint for the villagers seeking cost-effective services, requiring travel of 20 to 30 kilometers. Drishtee has brought about a paradigm shift by direct delivery of services to rural India, thus eliminating intermediaries. Drishtee generates employment opportunities for rural entrepreneurs and specifically targets women. Drishtee is also beneficial to enterprises by providing them the opportunity to offer a cost--effective channel to sell their products and services. Local entrepreneurs provide customized services to the villages including ICT training, regional job postings and matrimonial services, while the entire network is utilized as a channel for commercial services like insurance, education and agri-services. Drishtee has demonstrated a new model for a more effective, accessible, prompt and transparent governance, which benefits not only the citizen but also the government by effectively making the citizen a partner in the process of governance. The system is very cost-effective. In the Drishtee model, each of the kiosks caters to the needs of the surrounding villages. These Soochanalayas or Information kiosks have countered the two major barriers of infrastructure and power supply. More than 40,000 users have used the intranet system since the inception of the project. Mandi rates, land records, and grievance redress continue to be the most popular services, which have been utilized by 75% of all users. Soochanalayas are running as economically viable units with all the Soochaks or entrepreneurs comfortably earning a livelihood. There has been a 3% to 5% increase in the margins of farmers due to the ability to bypass middlemen and traders. There has been a four-fold increase in the number of users per month and an increased awareness of computers and IT in rural areas. This has resulted in the opening of new private computer training institutions and enrolment in such institutions has increased by 60%. The effect has opened a new horizon of employment avenues for the rural youth. Efficiency level in the functioning of government departments has increased resulting in improved and prompt services to the rural masses. Self Help Groups in the rural areas are getting more organized and empowered due to the transparency brought about in government services and rural economy. The lower government functionaries have become more computer-savvy. This is apparent in an increased number of applications for computer loans from the Employees Provident Fund and an increased number of officials who have joined computer-training classes.

Computer literacy has increased in the rural areas. Drishtee has affected political decision-making in resource allocation. A Member of Parliament has allocated Rs 25,00,000 to set up information kiosks in 30 schools to develop a new model of e-education. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has opened a study center for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on computer applications in its distance education program after realizing increased awareness about computers and IT in the district. Government of Madhya Pradesh instituted an award in the name of Gyandoot (former name of Drishtee) amounting to Rs. 2,00,000 to be awarded every year to a project in the state, which takes IT to the masses. The state IT policy has been re-oriented based on the impact of the project. Several prominent organizations like Microsoft, ISRO, MIT, IIT, IIM, NIC, LBSNAA, IIPA, HLL, Tata Trust, Mahindra Tractors, Jain Irrigation, Web Duniya, and S. Kumars sent their high level teams to understand the model and its impact. Various State Governments like the Governments of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Orissa also sent their teams of officials to understand the model so that it can be replicated in their respective states.

Above all, the Drishtee women entrepreneurs are able to give economic support to the family, can give themselves and their children extra confidence to face the challenges of life by being a role model. They are now able to give more social and financial security to the whole family and are capable of providing enough liberty and support to the men in the family to take more risks and try various options of earning. They are able to create respectable and long-term avenues of livelihood and resource generation in their villages. The intervention by Drishtee in Rural India has helped create jobs and add economic value to a region and community and at the same time keep scarce resources within the community. One of Drishtee's positive case studies is that of farmers in Madhya Pradesh who were getting Rs 300 per quintal from local traders for a potato crop at the local market. By checking prevailing market rates on the Drishtee portal, they discovered that the current rates at the Indore vegetable market were Rs 400. This prompted them to sell their potato produce at the Indore vegetable market, where they earned a higher profit.

Satyan Mishra believes that by creating more employment opportunities, ICT projects may help to reverse the trend of rural migration that seems to be the trend (9). Using IT as a tool for basic education, a new generation of IT literate people may emerge, who are able to sustain themselves, economically. The kiosks erected in these villages also ensure that Government schemes are communicated to people in rural areas. Drishtee kiosks enable e-government services like obtaining important documents (driving licenses, land records, etc) and addressing of online grievances, and private services like an online marketplace (Gram Haat), e-mail (Gram Daak), and an agriculture forum (Krishi Prashan), Commercial services, implemented in association with corporate institutions include computer education, insurance, digital photography, astrology and matrimonial services.

Conclusion

Team Drishtee aims to connect every single village in India to the other villages and the outside world. Mishra has chosen a road less travelled, "because not only does it make good economic sense for Drishtee, we are also helping promote jobs in rural areas. In many ways, I feel I am giving back to my community" (December 01, 2004). (10) It is a typical example of how an organization can create synergy between ICT application and ground-level entrepreneurship whereby generating employment opportunities for rural entrepreneurs, with equal gender focus. It is people like Mishra who, with their business and technology smarts, are capable of helping the underdeveloped parts of the world enrich their lives by gaining access to modern technology and services. Mishra has gone beyond mere lip-service, to actually use his rural ICT experience to make a difference where it is most needed.

Annexure I
Accolades for Drishtee

Year Awards

2000 Gyandoot Winner of "Stockholm Challenge Award"

2001 Drishtee Winner at World Bank Infodev's "Best ICT Stories"

2002 Drishtee Winner at Digital Partners "Most Promising Social
 Enterprise Award

2003 World Bank "Development Market Place Award"

2004 Ashoka--Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship

2005 Schwab Foundation "Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award"

2006 Red Herring "100 Asia Award"

 Zdnet "Technopreneur of the year Award"

 Winner at Clinton Global Initiative, Delloite

2007 World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer in 2007

 Recognition

 Bihar Innovation Forum--Recognized as one of the best
 innovations Won a cash award and recognition for innovative
 e-services for the poor

 Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy Award conferred by the
 President of India on three of Drishtee's franchisees in Assam

 Honored by World Summit on Information Society

 Finalist, Indian NGO Award

 Grassroots Caucus--Invitee Member to represent their Committee
 for Empowerment

 Asia Pacific Consultative meet of UNESCAP--Invited for
 presenting our work and for consulting

Source : www.drishtee.com

References

Government of Andhra Pradesh (2004), Report of Cabinet Sub-Committee on Farmer' Suicides; Hyderabad.

Hoy, F. (1983), "A Program for Rural Development from Inception through Implementation", Journal of Community Development, Vol. 14, pp. 33-49.

Petrin T. (1990), 'The Potential of Entrepreneurship to Create Income and New Jobs for Rural Women and Families', paper presented at the Fifth Session of the FAO/ECA Working Party on Women & the Agricultural Family in Rural Development, Prague, 2-5 October 1990.

Schumpeter, J. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA,

Shane, S. and Venkataraman, S. (2000), "The Promise of Entrepreneurship as Field of Research", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 25 (1), pp. 217-226.

Website Reference

(1.) www.drishtee.com

(2.) www.indianexpress.com/news/Drishtee-fastestgrowing-high-tech -company-in-the-country:-Deloitte/17555/

(3.) www.itcportal.com/rural-development/echoupal.htm

(4.) www.esevaonline.com

(5.) www.hllshakti.com

(6.) www.arti-india.org

(7.) www.indg.in/agriculture/rural-employment-schemes/ kvic-regp/kvic-regp

(8.) www.businessgyan.com/content/view/3410/552

(9.) http://www.zdnetasia.com/toptech/2006/0,39063702, 61967019,00.htm

(10.) www.thinkdigit.com/details.php?article_id=2166& mode=back

Anu Singh Lather [1], Shalini Garg [2] and Sona Vikas [3]

University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Kashmere Gate, Delhi--110 0403, India.

[1] E-mail: anusinghlather@gmail.com, [2] E-mail: shalinivineet@yahoo.com, [3] E-mail: sona.vikas@yahoo.co.in

Table 1: Products and Services offered by Drishtee

Vertical Sub-segment Products / Services Offered

Franchisee Education STEP, CEEP
Entrepreneurs
 Health Health Check-up, Eye care
 and Glasses

 Financial Services / Micro Insurance, Micro
 Products Finance and other Banking
 products

Supply Chain FMCG / Non-FMCG Mobile handsets & Recharge,
Management Distribution Invertors, Computers and
 Peripherals, Publications etc

Vertical Key Partnerships

Franchisee Stanford, Microsoft
Entrepreneurs
 Scojo, Dr. Reddy's,
 Honeywell, Care Hospitals

 ICICI, Bajaj, Kotak,
 Metlife, SBI, HDFC

Supply Chain Nokia, Motorola,
Management Amaron, Philips, Tata BP

Source: www.drishtee.com