Corporate India outlined its plans for
larger corporate-rural partnership to create a robust all round rural economy and rural
development. Two large corporates- ITC Ltd and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL)- which announced
their respective initiatives at the FICCI conference on Rural Marketing and Communications
in Delhi on Thursday.
While ITC’s chairman Y C Deveshwar
announced plans to create a ‘trust’ through which business enterprises both in
the private and public sector can contribute to provide a range of critical services to
the Indian farmer, HLL, on the other hand, proposes to partner with companies to
distribute products through the Shakti- HLL’s rural distribution initiative- network
to enhance the earnings of the women.
Speaking to the FE, Mr. Deveshwar said that
though the idea was at the inception stage but the company was confident of active
participation by other corporates.
HLL’s executive director, new ventures
& market services, Dalip Sehgal, too was positive about the move. The FMCG major has
teamed up with two major insurance players LIC and ICICI for insurance services and is
piloting the project in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Sehgal told the FE.
The tone for the seminar was set by Mr. A C
Muthiah, president, FICCI, who said that the partnership needed to be extended beyond
agribusiness. "The corporate sector can play a significant role in changing the rural
landscape and improve their own bottomline as a result," he said.
Exhorting all the stakeholders, Mr.
Deveshwar said that to maintain the growth rates in India’s rural economy and fuel an
eight percent rise in GDP, it was imperative for corporates to focus on increasing the
rural pie rather than indulge in competitive marketing to gain a larger share of the same
pie. "The heady growth rates that we witnessed in our rural economy during the
eighties and early nineties were no longer sustainable unless all stakeholders, and
particularly Indian corporates interested in tapping the existing purchasing power
potential among farmers, walk the extra mile."
In his presentation, Mr. Pradeep Kashyap,
managing director, MART and Member, The Rural Network suggested that companies may need to
create an independent rural vertical with a separate marketing team, sales targets and ad
budgets.