ITC's unique internet-based rural project, 'e-Choupal', has
won the inaugural 'World Business Award' instituted in support of the United Nation's
Millennium Development Goals. This is the first worldwide business award to recognize the
significant role business can play in the implementation of the UN's targets for reducing
poverty around the world by 2015. The award was announced in Paris yesterday.
The award has been instituted jointly by the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the HRH Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum
(IBLF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), recognising companies the
world over who have made significant efforts to create sustainable livelihood
opportunities and enduring wealth in developing countries. The Award will be presented at
the ICC World Congress on June 8, 2004 in Marrakesh.
Mr S Sivakumar, Chief Executive, ITC's Agri-businesses,
commenting on the award, said, "ITC's e-Choupal has demonstrated that it is possible
to closely dovetail the objective of business enterprises to create shareholder value with
the superordinate goal of creating value for the larger society. Indeed, only such
convergence can enable development efforts to be scaled up significantly."
ITC's trail-blazing 'e-Choupal' initiative is the single
largest Information Technology (IT)-based intervention by a corporate entity in rural
India. 'E-Choupal' enables the Indian farmer to readily access crop-specific real-time
information and customised knowledge in his own native language. It thus improves the
farmer's decision-making ability, thereby helping him to better align his farm output to
the projected demand in Indian and international markets. The farmer's ready and easy
access to expert knowledge helps significantly improve the quality of his crop and the
productivity of his land, thereby fetching him much better returns. The 'e-Choupal'
network also helps aggregate demand in the nature of a virtual producers' co-operative, in
the process facilitating the farmer's access to higher quality farm inputs at lower costs.
'E-Choupal' also creates a direct marketing channel, eliminating wasteful intermediation
and multiple handling, thus reducing transaction costs and improving logistical
efficiency. 'E-Choupal' is thereby enriching the Indian farmer with knowledge and
elevating him to a new order of empowerment.
The 'e-Choupal' initiative is bringing about a
revolutionary transformation in Indian agriculture. The Indian farmer is consequently now
evolving into a progressive knowledge-seeking netizen.
'E-Choupal' is already benefiting over 2.4 million farmers
with over 4,100 e-Choupal installations covering 21, 000 villages in 6 states. Over the
next decade, the e-Choupal network will cover over 100,000 villages, representing 1/6th of
rural India, and create more than 10 million e-farmers.
The Millennium Development Goals, which are the benchmarks
for the 'World Business Awards', were set by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan as a challenge for the world community to achieve by 2015. They include: halving
extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender
equality and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.
"We cannot reach these goals without support from the
private sector," Mr Annan has said of the Goals. "Most of all, we cannot reach
them without a strong private sector in the developing countries themselves, to create
jobs and build prosperity."
The 'World Business Awards', which will be handed out in a
special ceremony in Marrakesh and later form part of a special television series, aim to
encourage business to act where they are operational to alleviate poverty and promote
sustainable development.
Selected from 64 nominations in 27 countries, the
'e-Choupal' project has been specially recognized for making a significant contribution to
society by deploying the innovative and productive skills of a business enterprise and
striving to address the challenge of development through a core business activity.
