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The era of information and communication has triggered a ‘transformation roller-coaster’
across countries, economies and societies, tooled by Internet - the enabling technology. Digital utopians believe that this planetary revolution has the potential to end centuries of isolation and neglect and kick-start slumbering societies to a heady mix of empowerment and opportunity. Liberal exchange of information and experiences over the Internet, person-to-person communication amongst virtual communities spread over thousands of miles, distribution of products and services through this multi-transactional conduit, is converting today’s world into a vibrant global village. And India, and her village ‘republics’ are not far behind in this technological race with the incessant and effortless indigenous work of developmental organizations, which have carved their own niche in wiring up the rural India. The Delhi-based Development Alternatives Group is one such institutional set up pioneering a role to liberate rural lives through information and communication.
The TARAhaat Experience
Established in 1983, the Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), is the primary information and communication wing of the Development Alternatives Group. It is a non-profit research, development and consultancy outfit.
One of the core focuses of Development Alternatives is the economic empowerment of the poor through communication technology. One of the organisation’s innovative projects, named “TARAhaat” (haat meaning a village bazaar), comprises a commercially-viable model to bring relevant information, products and services via the Internet to the unserved rural market of India from which an estimated 50 percent of the national income is derived. The main objective is local area development through utilization of local resources.
The Development Alternatives Group promotes TARAhaat and its early alliance partners include Hughes Escorts Communication, KLG Systel, jaldi.com, James Martin, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, and the Global Development Gateway (sponsored by the World Bank and the Gates Foundation). Excelsior Ventures Management LLC and James Martin & Co have provided the initial equity capital together with management and operational resources.
TARAhaat combines a mother portal, TARAhaat.com, supported by franchised networks of village cybercafes and delivery systems to provide a full range of services to its clients. TARAhaat.com is the first internet portal designed specifically for rural India. Whether it is weather forecasts or current commodity prices, educational opportunities, government schemes, medical or career advice for just a few rupees worth of net connectivity, the villager can now have easy access to all the latest information from around the world. The motive behind the wire-up initiative: Knowledge brings options, options create opportunities and opportunities lead to sustainable development.
TARAhaat.com was officially dedicated to the Nation on January 30th, 2001. TARAhaat.com covers a wide range of services. These services are designed to bring something of value to every man, woman and child in the village. These services fall into several groups: E-News, E-Commerce, E-Governance, E-Education, E-Health, and E-Entertainment. Activities of TARA haat is at present spread across Northern India.
TARAhaat is engaged for the design, implementation and operating management of the TARAhaat.com portal and its associated services. It brings together unusual strengths in rural innovation and delivery systems, IT, marketing and economic development. The CEO is Ashok Khosla, who was earlier a director in the Government of India and in the United Nations.
There is no instrument more effective than the Internet for bringing both jobs and information to the rural economy - bringing the buyer and seller together and creating an efficient marketplace. TARAhaat has devised ingenious ways to communicate: No longer is one too illiterate to use the Internet. All information is provided in the local language and accompanied by pictures and self-explanatory animated diagrams. Villages without any phone lines can simply get connected to the Internet through TARAdish satellite connections.
TARAhaat has made it possible to provide many socially-valuable services without any charge to villagers because it can cover its costs by charging users for other services that help them generate income or make savings. These include access to agricultural information, mandi (whole sale) prices, health services, education and many other revenue streams. Businesses also pay TARAhaat to display their advancements and to help them market their products.
The look and feel of TARAhaat is carefully designed to attract and retain users of all kinds: farmers, traders, housewives, senior citizens, and children. The primary interface is both graphic (using specially-designed pictures and icons that are attractive, colourful and animated) and voice-based to ensure that everyone, regardless of their level of literacy, can quickly learn to take advantage of the system.
The cherry-picking strategy of Indian ISP’s has so far left the large rural market almost entirely without Internet connectivity. Where local connectivity is not available, TARAhaat provides access via C-band satellite.
TARAhaat was launched with limited financial capital from its promoters, TARA and Development Alternatives. As it grows, additional funds will be raised from public financial sources and private investors. Overall, 50 percent of the equity capital of TARAhaat.com is expected to belong to a non-profit foundation, the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation.
The wide ranges of Tarahaat services a member can get at the TARAkendra include basic IT skills, Life Skills, job skills and communications. A TARAkendra is a member of the nationwide network of TARAkendras that is being set up in the towns and villages of India.
The TARAkendra is a unique business-cum-community center that is equipped with computers and connected to the Internet. For the first time, the world of information, quality education and livelihood opportunities that were available only in big cities are now on hand, right in your own community.
A TARAkendra member can easily and affordably get relevant local information through the TARAhaat website; interactive multimedia education programmes in local languages; livelihood based vocational programmes; internet based access to markets; and easy access to services from government agencies. The clients of TARA range from Government Agencies and UN bodies to voluntary organisations, blue chip corporations and small enterprises across the globe.
Revenues to TARAhaat comes from payments received for services, commissions on sales, fees for advertising and entertainment, royalties and other sources of earnings. Studies have indicated that TARAhaat.com’s content has direct relevance and has resulted in commercial gains with people in rural areas willing to pay for information services.
TARAhaat’s revenues come from the wide range of services it provides to its end-clients, the villagers; its franchises in the form of royalties and service fees; its advertisers; its vendors and its other business partners, all of whom will benefit by the growing market for the their products and services made possible by TARAhaat.
Additional sources and opportunities for generating income will continue to be identified and explored when TARAhaat goes into full operation. At present, the project has been selectively implemented successfully in areas of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh states.
To ensure that TARAhaat is successful and its services reach a large majority of villages throughout India over the next four to five years, the initial implementation has been carried out in three carefully designed phases. After preliminary design work, mainly of the portal and the selected content fields, the alpha test took place (from May 2000) almost entirely in the field, in Jhansi District in the State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Tikamgarh District in Madhya Pradesh (MP). A fully functional pilot was then carried out in selected villages with a view to test the technology and to understand the requirements of the local people.
Obstacles
TARAraths (TARAvans) are designed to solve the problem of physical delivery of goods and services where courier services do not yet exist, which is the case for most villages in India. An order placed through TARAhaat.com will be passed on to TARAvendors (suppliers, dealers or agents of TARA-approved products) and to the local TARAvan franchise, which will pick up, deliver the items ordered and collect the payment.
Much of the information and intelligence on the TARAhaat.com screen is time-sensitive; it has to be updated regularly. A network of TARAscouts and alliance partners continually update the content to keep the portal constantly new, fresh and vibrant.
The growth of the TARAhaat network in terms of range of coverage and speed of implementation will benefit from the experience of the ubiquitous “public call offices” (PCOs) which have made the telephone a near-universally available service throughout India. Over the next five years, TARAhaat expects to have covered the bulk of the country, and expanded into neighboring countries in the sub-continent. An agreement has already been reached with the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies of Dhaka to franchise TARAhaat services to local entities in Bangladesh. Similar agreements are at an advanced stage of negotiations with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, the equivalent Pakistani NGO. The impact of this project has been recognised: TARAhaat won the Stockholm Challenge Award, also known as the Noble Prize for IT, in recognition of its pioneering efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote utilizing this technology for the benefit of the poor and sustainable development.
Scaling up
Today, using the latest advances in technology, TARAhaat.com brings to one the ability to communicate with the rest of the world - on his/her own terms. Ask what you want to know, share your special knowledge with others, and place an order for whatever you want; sell what you do not need. With anyone, anywhere in the world.
TARAhaat.com is the road that connects the Indian villager to the rest of the world. Using computers, telephone lines, satellites in the sky and a wonderful idea called the “Internet” or the “Worldwide Web” - things that did not exist anywhere in the world only a few years ago — TARAhaat opens opportunities for each one to reach his/her fullest potential.
TARAhaat.com faces little real competition in the near future. Its unique combination of a mother portal nurturing several vertical and horizontal portals within it, together with franchised kiosks and delivery vans, gives it a head start and considerable first-mover advantage in a market whose existence has so far been noticed by very few.
A few businesses and their advertisers are now beginning to recognize the opportunities offered by this market. Despite these efforts, however, the needs of the rural market are so vast that, with present technologies and organizational methods, they will remain unmet for many decades to come.
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