I am hopeful : III

In the last decade India has made big strides in the global economy especially IT and BPO sectors. There have been numurous stories about the jobs moving from everywhere to India. Optimism is probably at its highest level among the urban Indian youth. Most of them are either earning more than their parents ever did or are sure of doing so after finishing their college.

But, I have always been skeptical if all this can really elevate India, the real India, the rural India. All these stories are mainly of nri's and urban indians. All this has barely made any dent in the rural regions of the country. The only sign of modernity you will find is television sets and mobile. Green Revolution was the only thing which had some real impact on the life of rural Indians, but that too was limited to just punjab, haryana and to some extent western UP. Also, It is now a age old story (the time-period of green revolution was 1967-1978). It is close to three decades since any serious step has been taken in that direction. Infact, rural India is still where it was decades ago.

I have always been of the view that agriculture will have to move-up a step to bring out Indians from the clutches of poverty. It requires fewer people to be involved and be made more profits. Talking about profits, it will enormously help if middlemen can somehow be removed and reduced by a large extent. the crux of the problem is lack of proper supply chain management. With Mukesh Ambani deciding to enter the retail market (read Bigger, Faster, Better), with his bigger than the biggest dreams it seems that the retail business in India is on the verge of a revolution as had been the case with telecom with reliance infcomm entering the foray three years back. In the field of petrochemicals/refinery Mukesh has shown the world that he has the capacity and tenacity to turaround a country like India's position to a 'net energy exporter'. When Mukesh entered the telecom sector, the mobile market was restricted mainly to the upper and upper-middle class and that too exclusively in urban areas. The current scenario needs no story-telling, everyone knows about the booming telecom sector.

Mukesh plans to invest $5 billion by 2011. The investment will be distributed across the whole chain, the farms, the stores and the distribution system guided by the latest logistics technology. He aims to create enough of a surplus to generate $20 billion in agricultural exports annually. His trials are already complete in partnership with the Sahakari Bhandar chain of 19 supermarkets in Mumbai. The stores were modernized and new system put in place resulting in trippling of revenues in a matter of two months. During the second phase, he plans to enter the small towns with a population of over 50,000 and build stores/partner with already existing stores before entering the metros.

But the biggesy risk is from the lack of infrastructure and modern technologies in the farm sector. "To transform Indian farmers into quality suppliers for his new retail chain, Ambani plans to create 1,600 farm-supply hubs across India, providing technical know-how and credit, selling seeds, fertilizer and fuel, and buying produce. He also plans to build some 85 logistics centers to move food to retail outlets and to ports and airports for export. Reliance is gearing up to train tens of thousands of new employees in the next six to eight months to do everything from erecting prefab warehouses to transporting fresh produce."

If all this goes well and according to plans, rural India will find itself catapulted into a era of self-perpetutating growth. It has the potential to do the same for the farmers what IT/BPO has done for the college grads.