• Opportunities

IIT Madras’ incubation cell RTBI (Rural Technology Business Incubator), a part of the TeNet Group, organized a conference on Rural Opportunities for Business and Sustainability on March 3, 2010 at their under-construction Research Park in Chennai. The event may have been an inaugural of sorts for the new edifice at IIT-M’s sprawling campus, but business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural India is quite a steady story now at RTBI.

The day-long event brought together entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, evangelists, and venture capitalists working in / for development of rural India. Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala Chairperson of the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT-M and head of TeNet Group, the keynote speaker of the event addressed the auditorium of 100-odd people, centering his theme on developing rural India.  With a backdrop of India as it was in the 80’s to the India of 2010, whose IT industry has crossed $50 billion, and where 700,000 engineering students graduate from 2000 colleges Jhunjhunwala reiterated on ‘Creating a vibrant rural India connected to it’s roots’.

A large part of the day’s agenda focused on overlooked opportunities [business ideas for entrepreneurs to look at]. Anuradha Ramachandran from Venture East (an Indian VC/PE firm) identified three broad areas and business ideas within each here:

* Water (water purification, water recycling, and water harvesting)

* Technologies in storage (agricultural produce (given that 40 percent currently goes waste), cold storage technologies, and floriculture

* Waste Management (waste as a source of energy, considering rural areas/tier II &III cities rely on this for personal needs, and waste collection model)

Sources of waste include livestock, organic farms, and household waste. The challenge for entrepreneurs here she highlighted would be to have a sustainable input–output ratio as all models in this segment would be either high on capital or labor.

Similarly, Pradeep from Aavishkaar Fund highlighted the scale of opportunity in rural India given that 90 percent of employment in Indian is from the unorganized sector. Pradeep was of the view that organizing this sector is in itself a huge overlooked opportunity. From a VC’s perspective investors are attracted to scale and replicate ability of the business model. Citing businesses of a couple of their own investments [Zameen Organics that’s into fair trade cotton trading; Saraplast that makes mobile toilets] Pradeep reiterated on the concept of impact investing, where the impact is felt at the bottom of the pyramid. Pradeep suggested three areas, too.

* Low Cost Housing: tie up with MFIs and build on a delivery mechanism

* Healthcare

* Bio-mass supply chains: How can it solve cooking needs?  Managing front and back end of this segment including storage is an over looked opportunity

The statistics to prove this according to Pradeep are: 500 million tons of agricultural residue which can replace 500 million tons of coal.

These sessions were interspersed by stories from experience. Entrepreneurs like Saloni Malhotra of Desicrew (rural BPO), Sreejith of ROPE (network of rural artisans), Kakoli Das of The Red River (works with artisans in Assam), Dhruv Lakra, Mirakle Couriers (courier service hiring deaf people), and Abhishek Sinha, Eko (financial services for unbanked) among others who spoke of their challenges and experiences through their journey in rural India as up and running business models.

After hours of presentations the Innovation Jam Session (Ideas for Rural Enterprises) was a good booster to the afternoon as it also involved audience participation. The end result three white-boards full of business ideas with votes for the best. Some of the ideas suggested were:

* Rural BPO typist

* Use you mobile to find the best doctor nearby

* Consultancy for Farming

* Microfinance for College Education

* Bios Mass management

* Treat tannery effluents with biological waste

* Automatic vending machines

* Mobile vans with doctors and technology

* Eco-friendly travel cabs

* Community centers within Chennai for auto drivers

* Agricultural network

Communicate with Rural Households: Put social, educational messages on matchboxes (health, sanitation, education et all)

* Consultancy for Education

* Collaborative agriculture

* Portals for information

The winner as per audience votes was Communicate with Rural Households: Put social, educational messages on matchboxes (health, sanitation, education et all).

Tags:
IIT, incubator, RTBI, Rural, Rural Opportunities for Business and Sustainability, TeNet Group