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REPORT: BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR SAHAJ e-VILLAGE LIMITED
BLITZ_KJSIMSR

TEAM: BLITZ COLLEGE: K J SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES AND RESEARCH MEMBERS: CHIRAG A MEHTA SHASHANK AYYALA RAKSHA GOYAL

CONTENTS SR NO 1 2 3 4 5 6 PARTICULARS ABSTRACT HEALTHCARE AGRICULTURE MICROFINANCE EDUCATION CONCLUSION PAGE NO. 3 4 8 13 18 23

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SAHAJ e-VILLAGE LIMITED. ABSTRACT Sahaj e-Village Limited aims at bridging the gap between urban and rural India via ICT. A lot of success has come its way but there is much more to achieve. It has a huge penetration in the six states it operates it, namely Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and cover a population of 30 crore. It has been successful in covering the remotest of parts of these six states and has around 28000 common service centres via which most of the work is carried out. One CSC covers upto six villages and a population of around 8000 people. Such is the reach of the initiative, that the Indian government has approached the company for UID and other e-governance activities like MGNREGA as well. This report talks about bringing out services which would suffice the aspirations, needs/latent needs, demands and wants of rural India. There are four main areas that have been discussed at length here. These include healthcare, agriculture, education, and microfinance. There is a hierarchy of steps followed in each of the four areas discussed. The current scenario is mentioned along with the business, marketing, financial, operational and contingency plans. All the four areas discussed would lend a very diversified approach for the CSCs and a combination of both social and monetary gains would be accomplished with successful implementation of the model. There was constant effort to include ICT in the approach used along with cost effective operations so that the revenues don’t get affected in the process of diversifying. All the constraints were taken into consideration before going about deciding on the opportunity to be explored along with logical assumptions at some places.

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HEALTH CARE: PRESENT SCENARIO Healthcare is the right of every individual but lack of quality infrastructure, dearth of qualified medical functionaries, and non- access to basic medicines and medical facilities thwarts its reach to 60% of population in India. A majority of 700 million people lives in rural areas where the condition of medical facilities is deplorable.Considering the picture of grim facts there is a dire need of new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. To control the spread of diseases and reduce the growing rates of mortality due to lack of adequate health facilities, special attention needs to be given to the health care in rural areas. The key challenges in the healthcare sector are low quality of care, poor accountability, lack of awareness, and limited access to facilities. SCOPE Sahaj covers over 30 crore of rural population in the 6 states that it operations in. The strong penetration of CSCs can help target the remotest of places in these states. That apart, medication, facilities and infrastructure, diagnostics, urgent treatments, on call/video conferencing attendance, etc can create a great brand perception and association of the CSCs among the rural population. Also, the whole plan can be done with a PPP initiative, helping Sahaj get a lot of working capital as well. The government initiative would also be solved to a great extent and hence grants can be expected on successful operation. BUSINESS MODEL

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HEALTHCARE
PERIODIC CHECK UPS EMERGENCIES

FIRST AID & MEDICATION
DIAGNOSIS

1) PERIODIC CHECK UPS Doctors from government hospitals can be called to visit various CSCs in a schedule. The schedule should be such that doctors of all specializations should be able to visit a particular CSC so that holistic check up and diagnostics can be taken care of. 2) EMERGENCIES Tie ups with government medical colleges to send their interns for rural internship for a compulsory period to various CSCs in a particular state. This will enable emergency handling of a huge chunk of villagers as the interns reside in the particular for a considerable tenure and can take care of the situation and control the situation well. 3) FIRST AID AND MEDICATION There will be a stock of various medicines that will be available in the CSCs at all times hence proving to be a one stop shop for the rural public. There can be associations formed with Pharma companies and their drugs could be sold out exclusively ensuring a lot of branding and promotion of that company. A lot of FMCG products can also be procured in the same way. 4) DIAGNOSIS: Videoconferencing with a lot of doctors can be done to carry out diagnosis. Telephonic conversations can also be made to know the primary reasons of illness and primary medication can be dispatched from the telephonic prescription itself.

MARKETING PLAN
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The marketing plan has been made so as to cover all the 4 A’s: 1) AWARENESS: The CSCs should try and make the villages they cover understand the fact that healthcare is being provided at their doorstep and that it is a social initiative. The fact that diagnosis and periodic specialized checkups can prevent fatalities should be highlighted. 2) AFFORDABILITY: The fact that there is government backing and social nature of the activity would make the operations all the more inexpensive and affordable. The tie ups with government hospitals would reduce the costs to a great level. 3) ACCEPTABILITY: When the model is carried out in all the CSCs across all the 6 states at affordable prices and for a social cause, there is abundant acceptability on offer as it is for the state, by the state and of the state. 4) AVAILABILTY: As mentioned earlier, tie ups with medical facilities and Pharma companies will enable seamless supply of goods and the interns will also be employed at the CSCs for a fixed tenure making the availability factor very viable. That apart, the videoconferencing and telephonic diagnosis makes it all the more available at all times. FINANCIAL PLAN The costing of the whole plan is pretty simple. The working capital required would include inventory for basic medication, as the other medication can be procured post the prescriptions. The visiting doctor’s remuneration will be taken care of by their respective hospitals. The medical colleges will cater for the stipends of the interns. The infrastructure required would incur minimal fixed costs as the CSCs are already built and hence only a few adjustments would be required. REVENUE MODEL: Normal revenue can be generated whenever a patient registers himself/herself. That is the admission fee, post which the recurring fee would be charged. Note that the fees charged would be very nominal. That apart, the patients will have to bear the expenses for the medication. There are plans to link up with a Pharma partner to provide all the medicines. Similarly, FMCG partner will be taking

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care of personal hygiene products and day to day usage products. There will be significant revenue generation from that as the prescriptions will be oriented accordingly. The marketing activities and penetration for the partners should fetch a lot of revenue because the reach obtained by the partnership covers a very huge untapped market. CONTINGENCY PLANS There can be situations when there are emergencies and the intern cant do much about it. In these cases, any means of very rapid and mobile transportation can be arranged for and the patient can be sent to the nearest facility to start the treatments. That apart, there can be diversion from schedule of visiting doctors when there is outbreak of certain diseases due to infection due to weather or contamination of food and water at a particular CSC location.

TREATMENT OF ELDERLY WOMAN AT A RURAL HEALTHCARE CENTRE.

INTERNS TREATING THE RURAL ELDERLY.
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VISITING DOCTORS OF VARIOUS SPECIALIZATIONS.

AGRICULTURE
PRESENT SCENARIO The major problems confronting Indian agriculture are those of population pressure, small holdings, depleted soils, lack of modern technology and poor facilities for storage. (a) Population Pressure: India has a huge population of over one billion and it is increasing at a very fast rate. According to 2001 census figures the overall density of population is 324 persons per sq. km. This is likely to increase further in future. This has created great demand for land. Every bit of land has been brought under the plough. Even the hill slopes have been cut into terraces for cultivation. (b) Small and Fragmented Land Holdings: The pressure of increasing population and the practice of dividing land equally among the heirs has caused excessive sub divisions of farm holdings. Consequently, the holdings are small and fragmented. The small size of holdings makes farming activity uneconomical and leads to social tension, violence and discontentment. (c) Inadequate Irrigation Facilities: By and large the irrigation facilities available in India are far from adequate. So for half of the total area under food crops has been brought under irrigation and the remaining half is left to the mercy of monsoon rains which are erratic in time and space. (d) Depleted Soils: Indian soils have been used for growing crops for thousands of years which have resulted in the depletion of soil fertility. With deforestation the sources of maintaining natural fertility of soil has been drying out. Lack of material resources and ignorance of scientific knowledge have
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further depleted the soils of the natural fertility. Earlier only animal waste was enough to maintain soil fertility. (e) Storage of food grains: Storage of food grains is a big problem. Nearly 10 per cent of our harvest goes waste every year in the absence of proper storage facilities. This colossal wastage can be avoided by developing scientific ware-housing facilities. The government has taken several steps to provide storage facilities. (f) Farm Implements: Although some mechanization of farming has taken place in some parts of the country, most of the farmers are poor and do not have enough resources to purchase modern farm implements and tools. This hampers the development of agriculture. SCOPE When applied to the agricultural sector, we can deliver governance products and services which are of use to the agricultural community, including farmers, livestock breeders, herders, dairy workers, agriculture extension workers, traders, scientists, middlemen, and NGOs working in the agriculture sector. There are a range of interventions that are useful for the agrarian community. For instance, those aimed at increasing crop productivity, reducing crop damage due to weather and pests, improved livestock management, improved access to credit and government schemes, better market rates for farm products, providing food security, conservation of bio-diversity, reduce in use of chemicals, and access to better seed varieties and technology. These interventions can be provided through several governance products and services including: information about the latest seed varieties and technologies; accurate rainfall and weather prediction; timely access to various government schemes such as those on water resources management and subsidies on land development and soil conservation activities; information about local agriculture offices and officers, crop testing and training centres; information on milk processing, grain storage, livestock vaccination and crop diseases; information about market prices of various crops, government procurement prices, rates for loans, and available credit facilities. Apart from these, farmers often need legal documents certifying their ownership of land and livestock, which is useful purchasing or selling land and cattle. They also need access to government forms to apply for government schemes, loans and subsidies, for getting electricity on their farms, for digging new wells, diverting canal water for irrigation, and getting reimbursement for livestock eaten by wild animals. In summary, there are number of governance products and services which are specific to the
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agricultural community and which should be made available to them. These services are of even more significance for agrarian community in developing countries where good agricultural production is essential to ensure household food security and provide livelihoods to agricultural workers. For most of these agrarian households, income from crop and livestock is the sole source of livelihood and governance services aimed on their needs has a direct impact on household as well as community welfare. For instance, in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, over 90 percent of farmers are small, farming less than 5 hectares of land. For such households, the safety net lies in good governance to ensure that required agricultural products and services get delivered to them in a timely and efficient manner. Consequently, national and state governments, NGOs and donor agencies should give high priority to ensure good governance within the agricultural sector. PLAN 1. Improve the quality and standards of existing agriculture related governance products and services being provided This could include improving existing agricultural extension services through use of IT tools, opening new communication channels by which information about market prices and government procurement prices can reach farmers, or providing updated information about local agriculture offices and the services provided by them. 2. Provide new agricultural governance services and products to the citizens/users which are needed but have not been provided so far This could include providing opportunities to farmers to access and modify their land records data accurately, providing credit cards to farmers to be used for purchasing of seeds, fertilizers and farm equipments, or installing community based equipment which could update the farmers about rainfall prediction, about prevalent crop diseases, or movements of wild animals in the area. 3. Enhance the participation of agrarian community in deciding what governance products and services should be provided and in what manner This could include building capacities of farmers to decide how agriculture related government funds should be spent in their village, for instance on repairing the lining of canals or restoring of rain harvesting structures. They should be able to influence government decisions on the appropriate location of check dam construction, deciding who should qualify for farm subsidies, and the kind of courses offered by the local agriculture training centres. 4. Bring new sections of the agrarian community under the governance sphere This includes bringing new section of agrarian community within the governance sphere, and

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namely those who are more likeable to remain excluded: landless farmers, migrant labourers, women farmers, old farmers and tribal communities. 5. Improve access of farmers to timely and relevant information & services throughout crop-cycle
o o o

By providing multiple delivery channels to access information By reducing time between generation and dissemination of information By providing information to the farmer through a uniform platform

6.Bringing farmer centricity & service orientation by providing location specific and up-todate crop management related information in terms of:
o o o

Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) - how many days, season specific, crop specific, location / zone specific Packages of Practice (POPs) - How many days, season specific, crop specific, location / zone specific Providing personalized advisory services Certification and licensing related to Manufacturing and Marketing through use of ICT Providing easier and approachable channels for grievance registration and tracking Extension Marketing (both input and output) Post-harvest& Storage

7.Increasing effectiveness of government service delivery in
o o

8. Benefit farmers by providing an integrated platform to promote value added services in
o o o

BUSINESS MODEL Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) has over the years undertaken several IT initiatives such as AGMARKNET, SEEDNET, DACNET etc. Agriculture Mission Mode Project proposes to integrate these IT initiatives with the new applications / modules being developed as a part of the Project.Detailed field study with end-users and beneficiaries in six states and in various departments and organizations of DAC was carried out. These 22 services were then finally clustered into 12 services from the point of view of application development and implementation. These include G2F (Government to Farmer), G2B (Government to Business) and G2G (Government to Government) services. So as these services have been identified to be most crucial, these should be part of our operations.
 

Information on Pesticides, Fertilizers and Seeds Providing information on soil health
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         

Information on crops, farm machinery, training and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Information on forecasted weather Information on prices, arrivals, procurement points, and providing interaction platform Electronic certification for exports & imports Information on marketing infrastructure Monitoring implementation / Evaluation of schemes & programs Information on fishery inputs Information on irrigation infrastructure Drought Relief and Management Livestock Management

MARKETING PLAN As the CSC’s have a big base of customers for existing services, it can use that to promote these services too by sending SMS’s or manually telling them when they come visit the CSC’s. Also, local ads in newspapers and on radio can be given to promote it. FINANCIAL PLAN Costs: 1. Application development costs 2. Costs incurred in hiring and training staff for the activities 3. Advertising costs REVENUE MODEL 1. Monthly or yearly subscriptions for agricultural consulting 2. Providing VAS in which farmers receive messages on prices, commodities, and advisory services from a database with information on crops and other markets

RISK/CONTINGENCY PLAN Raising awareness regarding the service and use of technology can be a major issue. This can be dealt with by executing advertising campaigns and training sessions initially for the farmers.

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MICROFINANCE PRESENT SCENARIO On 12th July 2002, Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee outlined an eight point agenda to push the economy on a growth path of eight percent during the 10th plan. Mr. Vajpayee assured that it would be government’s endeavor to ensure that “the poor and the unorganized sector have access to savings, credit and insurance services”. This statement itself is a great boost to the microfinance sector, as one can see the changing perception of the people influencing the policies, toward it. However, it is still a beginning and to make the sector vibrant, the efforts have to be still on. It is estimated that in India there exist approximately 7.5 crores poor households, out of which 6 crores are rural and 1.5 crores urban households. One estimate assumes that the total annual requirement of credit for the rural poor families would be at least Rs.15, 000 crores on the basis of a maximum need of Rs.2000/- per family. Another estimate for requirement of credit (excluding housing) is Rs.50,000crores assuming that annual average credit usage are Rs.6000/per rural household, and Rs.9000/- for poor urban household. An additional Rs.1000 crore is estimated to be required for housing per year. In India, numerous government schemes have tried to provide various subsidized services to the poor households. However, various studies have exposed the limitation of these programs, showing the lack of access of mainstream financial services for these poor households and their over-dependence on the local moneylenders in meeting their consumption and micro-enterprise demands. According to an estimate, only 16% credit usage was met by the formal sources, while the remaining 84% was met by the informal services. Despite having a wide network or rural bank branches in the country and implementation of many credit linked poverty alleviation programmes, a large number of the very poor continue to remain outside the fold of the formal banking system. Various studies also suggested that the policies, systems and procedures and the saving and loan products often did not meet the needs of the very poor. NABARD refinances the microfinance sector loans by banks, but doesn’t undertake direct financing. Thus, its ability to promote innovations or establish any “missing link” units is very limited. Small Indus tries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) mainly uses the network of State Financial Corporations (SFCs) and commercial banks to extend microfinance sector loans in rural small towns. It also faces the same constraint. State Financial Corporations (SFCs) largely concentrate on the upper end of SSIs and that too in urban areas. However, through their district branches, a small proportion of lending is done to the microfinance sector. Their lengthy and stringent procedures inhibit the poor. Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) are located in rural areas, have low CD ratio but are suffering immensely from lack of skills, incentives and infrastructure support. As can be seen from above, while there is no dearth of institutions and branch network in urban and rural areas, this physical outreach does not translate into access to credit by microfinance sector producers.
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However, wherever mainstream finance institutions areengaged in financing small borrowers, their experience is characterized by a number of factors. Their institutional design and mandate, which determines their procedures, do not suit the poor. The poor find their procedures cumbersome, complicated and unsuitable for the local environment.. They have also failed to provide a mix of credit for both consumption and productive loans. Therefore poor feel alienated in dealing with them. They feel scared to go to them. Repeat loans, except for crop production are rare, even for the borrowers who have repaid fully. Further, even though the many of the loans extended to the poor by the public sector financial institutions are subsidized, their ultimate cost to the borrowers is high which includes payments to the middle men, wage and business loss due to time spent in getting the loans approved. SCOPE “Rural market potential in India is so huge that a mere one percent increase in India’s rural income translates to Rs 100,000 million of buying power,” according to a study quoted in Marketing to Rural Consumers According to the latest research done by the World Bank, India is home to almost one third of the world’s poor (surviving on an equivalent of one dollar a day). Though many central government and state government poverty alleviation programs are currently active in India microfinance plays a major contributor to financial inclusion. In the past few decades it has helped out remarkably in eradicating poverty. Reports show that people who have taken microfinance have been able to increase their income and hence the standard of living. About half of the Indian population still doesn’t have a savings bank account and they are deprived of all banking services. Poor also need financial services to fulfill their needs like consumption, building of assets and protection against risk. Microfinance institutions serve as a supplement to banks and in some sense a better one too. These institutions not only offer micro credit but they also provide other financial services like savings, insurance, remittance and non-financial services like individual counseling, training and support to start own business and the most importantly in a convenient way. The borrower receives all these services at her/his door step and in most cases with a repayment schedule of borrower’s convenience. But all this comes at a cost and the interest rates charged by these institutions are higher than commercial banks and vary widely from 10 to 30 percent. Some claim that the interest rates charged by some of these institutions are very high while others feel that considering the cost of capital and the cost incurred in giving the service, the high interest rates are justified. One of the fastest growing sectors of India, microfinance is spearheading intense competition among the largest players. Microfinance institutions at present serve an estimated 150 million clients in the India.In recent years, the excessive reliance of borrowers on some or other forms of moneylender and informal/semi-formal sources and exorbitant interest rate charged by those entities have captured the attention of policy makers to downsize the informal sector finance. The Technical Group Report to review legislations on money lending (RBI, 2006) by the Reserve Bank had examined, inter alia, the functioning of moneylenders, linkages between money lending activities and formal credit channels, international practices in regulating money lending activities, and enforcement machinery for money lending and similar activities in the interest of rural households.
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BUSINESS MODEL Sahaj e-Village Ltd.is into financial services covering Business correspondent, Life and Non-life insurance premium collection and PFRDA pension services. As there are numerous choices available for investment so what is to be done is to make aware of different opportunities prevailing. For targeting rural consumer, Micro Financing comes into picture. Microfinance is aimed at ensuring a cost effective mechanism for providing financial services to the rural poor, particularly rural women for the improvement of standard of living through the generation of self-employment and income. As they are already serving customers for insurance policies and pension services, we can further have a line extension to offer them to go for fixed deposits, micro sip, SHG. It is feasible as we are already into this type of services and we are just expanding our offerings. So are first step is to tie up with financial institutes or start own broking firm. Secondly to hire highly qualified staff having thorough knowledge of investment market. We just need to trained people about proper financial investments. Following are some line extensions which can be executed: 1) Self Help Group (SHG) This is the bank-led microfinance channel which was initiated by NABARD in 1992. Under the SHG model the members, usually women in villages are encouraged to form groups of around 10-15. The members contribute their savings in the group periodically and from these savings small loans are provided to the members. In the later period these SHGs are provided with bank loans generally for income generation purpose. The group’s members meet periodically when the new savings come in, recovery of past loans are made from the members and also new loans are disbursed. This model has been very much successful in the past and with time it is becoming more popular. The SHGs are self-sustaining and once the group becomes stable it starts working on its own with some support from NGOsand institutions like NABARD and SIDBI. 2) Micro SIP MFs offer systematic investment plans (SIPs), whereby you can invest a sum of money (usually a fixed sum, but it can also be made variable if your fund house allows) every month. Micro SIP is a facility that allows you to invest in MFs up to Rs 50,000 a year and minimum investment is only Rs. 50 per month. It is more popular because it allows you to invest small monthly investment targeting the low income group. Targeted at the weaker sections of society, micro SIPs do not require investors to submit their PAN card. Remember to tick the box that says “micro SIP” in your SIP application form.About three to four years back, fund houses started promoting the micro SIP facility in a big way. Since the minimum investment limit for most MFs was Rs 5,000 for lump sum investment or Rs 1,000 for an SIP, economically weaker sections got left out.Look around and you’ll see that many people from the economically weaker sections of society, including our house helps, daily wage workers who don’t come with employment benefits, vendors and contract labourers will not have a PAN card. But such people can invest in a mutual fund (MF), even if they do not have a PAN card, through a facility called micro SIP.
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This SIP amount can be invested into equity, debt, government securities, fixed instruments depending on the risk taking availability of the customer. 3) Fixed Deposit A fixed deposit (FD) is a financial instrument provided by Indian banks which provides investors with a higher rate of interest than a regular savings account, until the given maturity date . It may or may not require the creation of a separate account. As rural people don’t have bank facilities so they are unaware of the fact that they can earn money on money. These people keep their money in their houses but if we make them aware of fixed deposit, they can earn interest of approx. 9% on their income. And this is not in correspondence with the changing scenario; you will get your fixed income at the end of the maturity so it is risk free. 4) Venture Capitalist Money provided by investors to startup firms and small businesses with perceived long-term growth potential. This is a very important source of funding for startups that do not have access to capital markets. It typically entails high risk for the investor, but it has the potential for aboveaverage returns. As we have such a broad customer base, if even 1% of them think of becoming entrepreneurs then also our target is achieved. And people are actually coming with new ideas, so encouraging them by providing funds by looking into the feasibility of the idea is profitable for both. MARKETING PLAN Theyhave presence in 6 states covering 25,000 centres and catering to 30 cr customers. Thus they have broad database. As our target customers are same for the extended services also, so there is no need of impulse marketing. The marketing plan has been made so as to cover all the 4 A’s 1) AWARENESS: In rural, people are not aware how to generate income from income. They don’t have facilities to store money, so we can make them aware how they can fruitfully use their money. So main purpose is to make them aware of numerous investment options, how they can earn interest on saving accounts and so on. 2) AFFORDABILITY: Micro finance was introduced to cater the needs of low income group only. We have Micro SIP as an option which demands only Rs. 50 monthly, SHG group which take into account a small

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group of people who can collectively investment periodically and provide loan as and when needed. So it is highly affordable by rural people. 3) ACCEPTABILITY This model is highly acceptable as you can earn interest on your money which is simply lying in your home. So if you get an opportunity to enhance your wealth by earning interest or investing in some growing sectors. It is always acceptable. 4) AVAILABILTY: As mentioned above, they have high penetration, but services were limited. So offering new services and hiring proper trainees who have in depth knowledge of financial investments and who can impart complete information to the customers and can arrange small campaigns to target new customers. FINANCIAL PLAN Firstly the costing depends on whether you are going to have tie ups with financial broking institutes like Reliance Capital for investment and deposits scheme or you are going to start your own investment firm. Then cost will be incurred in hiring people and training them about the investment schemes as the investment market is too vast and volatile. high skilled trainers are to be hired. Cost will be incurred in doing small add campaigns but cost will be less as we already have broad customer base. Profits can be earned in the form of brokerage in investment schemes and interest on deposits scheme.

RISKS/ CONTINGENCY PLANS As we know, market is highly volatile and it is very unpredictable so we require highly qualified trainees who can understand the market and convey complete information to the customers. So reliability lies in the advisors if they provide incomplete information, customers can face huge loss. Also in investment we have various options like mutual funds, equity and debt market. And if we talk about equity market then returns are more as well as risk is high whereas in debt market we get low risk and low returns. So we as advisors need to look at the customers risk ability and then advise him. Otherwise it is in huge loss for company as well as customers.

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EDUCATION PRESENT SCENARIO Education in India falls under the control of both the Union Government and the State Governments, with some responsibilities lying with the Union and the states having autonomy for others. The various articles of the Indian Constitution provide Education as a fundamental right. Most universities in India are controlled by the Union or the State Government. As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school. This is the fourth annual survey to report enrollment above 96%. 83% of all rural 15-16 year children were enrolled in school. However, going forward, India will need to focus more on quality. Talking about quality of education the following facts talk about ability to read, starting level 1 and progress year on year and thus the quality of current India Education System.

Ability to read YoY This table tells a heart-breaking story. Here is how it works. The second column tells you the percentage of students who can read at second grade level. The next column shows the improvement in this number, for every year of schooling. This is the fraction of students who are learning to read in every grade (the gain from grade to grade). For example, by the end of the third grade, 10.1% more of the students can now read a basic text. Using this data, you can then ask the following question. If you come into a grade not knowing how to read, what are the odds that you still won’t be able to read at the end of the year? This is the number presented in the last column [1]. It measures the failure of the schools to bring a child to literacy. The larger this number, the more likely it is that a child who is left behind will stay
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behind. For example, of the children who enter the fourth grade not knowing how to read, 81% will not gain literacy that year. Now imagine the plight of our hopeful student, who has just joined the second grade, without knowing how to read. It is pretty much a given that they will not learn how to read in the second grade (94% odds). In the third grade, 9 out of 10 students will not learn how to read. In the fourth grade, 8 out of 10. The Right to Education Act mandates that students should not repeat a year. So every year, this child is promoted onwards, with the hope that somebody else will notice and help. But year after year, the odds are stacked firmly against them. Lant Pritchett describes the outcome: “The result is that you could easily be one of the one in three children who complete lower primary schooling, passed through five entire years of schooling, having spent roughly 5,000 hours in school, still lacking the most fundamental of skills. And so, year after year, a dream deferred becomes a dream denied.” SCOPE Sahaj covers over 30 crore of rural population in the 6 states that it operations in. The strong penetration of CSCs can help target the remotest of places in these states. With digital education gaining a lot of pace and acceptance worldwide and with the role of education becoming more prominent even in the rural areas e-learning facilities through the CSC’s can help spread education thick and fast. Having digital learning centers near the CSC’s would help create mileage for CSC’s and also promote education at a modest cost. This area would definitely take more time and money and the same infrastructure could be used for having e-learning centers for professional courses, preparation for common entrance tests. The existing infrastructure could be used for counseling and admissions where CSC’s have a tie up with government and private institutions where a lot of seats in these colleges go unfilled by paying a nominal fee. Meritorious students can definitely apply for better institutions. Make CSC’s a one stop shop for all services. BUSINESS MODEL The business model 1) Online Counseling helping chose colleges and courses 2) Online filling up of application forms and admissions 3) E-Learning Courses

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Online Counseling helping chose colleges and courses Students need guidance to choose a program and there are many such programs conducted by eminent professors in the cities. These videos could be played in the CSC’s repeatedly and online queries could be asked using mails, voice chat, video calling and more. College details and more could also be checked using the college websites. Online filling up of application forms and admissions Students can just help themselves by filling forms online and the admissions could be done online based on the interest and availability of seats and the requirement of the college if any. CSC’s can utilize the existing infrastructure and need not invest more in any other assets. E-Learning Courses E-Learning is becoming a wide spread and a very important aspect and ensuring that villagers get the best of technology can create a huge impact on the CSC’s and make it the most happening place in the village which could be a one stop shop for all the service requirements. MARKETING PLAN The marketing plan has been made so as to cover all the 4 as follows: 1) AWARENESS: CSC’s can make profits comfortably without looking for profits in the field of education because the whole country today has been influenced by the need to educate. Petty farmers too know the value of education and are trying to educate their children. An education oriented program will definitely drive more people to the CSC’s making it a one stop solution for all services. 2) AFFORDABILITY: CSC’s have a government backing and the operations are inexpensive and affordable. Having a e-educational set up will definitely get a huge funding from the government and thus make it affordable to the masses. The spending power has increased considerably in villages with one member among the family going to cities or even abroad to work. They have begun pumping in money making lives of these people much easier. 3) ACCEPTABILITY: CSC’s have presence in 6 states and have a reach of 30 crore people and thus this concept is already existing and building up on this is the need of the hour.

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4) AVAILABILTY: Education is something which can never fade away even after centuries and has the need and requirement. The programs that would be run can make use of the existing infrastructure or create new ones for e-learning. As the e-learning facility can be used anytime classes and the availability of learning is 24/7. FINANCIAL PLAN The costing of the whole plan is pretty simple. The costs required for a) E-learning set-up is the fixed costs such as projector, boards, furniture, rent, salary to a security guard who could be taught how to switch on the set up so that the students find it easy during the starting stage. b) Admissions through the online systems could be done through tie-ups with government and private run organizations. Seats that are unfilled could be filled up through this process by charging nominal fees. REVENUES Revenues component is the most attractive part of the business and one of the most important purposes of doing a business. An organization that does well with awards and recognitions but cannot generate revenues for itself will not sustain for too long. Similarly CSC’s need to generate enough revenues in order to continue with a sustainable business model.

Unfilled graduate program seats in Tamil Nadu alone In Tamil Nadu alone there are around 53,400 seats that are unfilled and the no of seats that are unfilled across 6 states would run up to at least 150,000 in various graduation programs alone. If post-graduation and other courses are considered, the numbers will go much higher. Counseling students and providing them an opportunity to pursue higher education could be a huge source of opportunity. Even if 100 INR was collected per student as a fee for just aiding admission procedure and the fee could be paid after enrolment into college along with the college fees with the help of education loans offered by banks, if need be. CSC’s can make

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revenues of 15000*100 = 15lakhs/year even if 10 percent of the unfilled seats are filled from CSC’s. E-learning centers would fetch incomes over a period of time and not immediately can those centers can utilize the revenues that are coming in from the other education based programs and create revenues in the long run.

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CONCLUSION A four pronged strategy mentioned above can help the company gain a lot of impetus as far revenue, reach, promotion, operations, marketing and social entrepreneurship is concerned. All the four areas are unrelated but cater to the direct needs of the rural Indian population. Healthcare is of the utmost need in rural India and is totally untapped. All four aspects of primary medical activities have been covered in the case. The activities are designed in such a way that the capital employed is minimum and the outputs have a cascaded and lasting effect. Besides, there is a lot of CSR involved in the same. Although agriculture contributes only 21% of India’s GDP, its importance in the country’s economic, social, and political fabric goes well beyond this indicator. This sector also provides immense opportunities in terms of increasing crop productivity, reducing crop damage due to weather and pests, improved livestock management, improved access to credit and government schemes, better market rates for farm products, providing food security, conservation of biodiversity, reduce in use of chemicals, and access to better seed varieties and technology. This leads to a lot of opportunity for Public Private Partnerships wherein the private players can bring in the technology while public sector provides the funds and resources to implement the same. The strength and sustainability of the Indian microfinance business model lies inthe fact that it is serving a large unmet need for financial inclusion. It has thus far successfully tackled challenges that have faced other financial service providers in meeting the demands of this sector through creative product innovation with awareness of the segment’s particular needs and capacities. The large size of the currently unbanked population in India and diversity of geography means that the microfinance sector has great potential for continued high growth. Given this growth and maturity dynamic, the Indian microfinance sector is increasingly seen as a viable investment target with commercial investors joining the social investors who have been nurturing the industry thus far. Thus spreading awareness about the various investment options and encouraging them to save and invest to get high returns will be a step forward as population of India is majorly living in rural areas. Education is a necessity in India and is not catered to in Rural India. The quality is not on offer and that is the main agenda addressed here. The e-learning opportunities are abundant if the model is successfully implemented. There is a lot of interest in higher education and the activities carried out here will help fulfill the same.

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