Agri-commodities & rural services
ITC's unique strength in this business is the extensive backward linkages it has established with the farmers. This networking with the farming community has enabled ITC to build a highly cost effective procurement system. ITC has made significant investments in web-enabling the Indian farmer. Christened 'e-Choupal', ITC's empowerment plan for the farmer centres around providing Internet kiosks in villages. Farmers use this technology infrastructure to access online information from ITC's farmer-friendly website. Data accessed by the farmers relate to the weather, crop conditions, best practices in farming, ruling international prices and a host of other relevant information. e-Choupal today is the world's largest rural digital infrastructure.
The unique e-Choupal model creates a significant two-way multi-dimensional channel which can efficiently carry products and services into and out of rural India, while recovering the associated costs through agri-sourcing led efficiencies. This initiative now comprises about 6500 installations covering nearly 40,000 villages and serving over 4 million farmers. Over the next 7-10 years, it is ITC's vision to create a network of 20,000 e-Choupals, thereby extending coverage to 100,000 villages representing one sixth of rural India. The transformational impact of this pioneering initiative continues to earn global and domestic accolades, including the prestigious Development Gateway Award, the inaugural UNDP-ICC World Business Award and the Stockholm Challenge Award.
