For most of us, rural India is that huge, heterogeneous part of the country that catches our attention only with the news of floods, droughts and farmers committing suicide. It amazes me how little we know of our villages where more than 600 million Indians live. The reasons for ignorance are obvious: more than 35 per cent of Indian villages aren't connected by road, rural telephone density is merely 1 per cent and regular power supply to a vast number of villages is still an exception rather than the rule.

PICTURE SPEAK

Our previous two covers on rural India

It is for these reasons that I took the news of a renewed corporate interest in rural India earlier this year with more than a pinch of salt-till the news turned into a veritable deluge. Corporate houses, big and small, are rushing to enter and expand rural businesses like never before. These include the Tatas, Birlas, Godrej, ITC, Mahindras, Mittals and even the Ambanis. Leading the march to villages in terms of speed and spread is ITC. Its e-choupal network has spread to 30,000 villages in less than four years and its partners include 37 companies, NGOs, agriculture universities and state governments. The Tatas have recently refocused their rural business, and so have the Mahindras. Behind the new thrust is the belief that rural India is no longer unviable, there is opportunity for those who can smell it.

At the heart of most initiatives is the innovative use of information technology, which has helped companies ride over abysmal infrastructure in the villages. Most firms are not only selling products to farmers but are also bringing village produce to cities and even to markets abroad, forming a two-way transaction channel between rural India and the rest of the world. Why now? The unprecedented rise in village prosperity in the 1990s, advent of infotech, emerging export opportunities and some pro-rural policies by the Government provided the immediate trigger. Companies are now talking of how they can transform the entire food chain-from farm to firm to fork. Says Deputy Editor Rohit Saran who put together the cover story: "The corporates' rural rush can not only change Indian farming but also redefine everything between plough and plate-food processing, retailing and food habits."

For the UPA Government which has come to power riding on rural India's yearning for change, here is an opportunity to do everything it can to deepen corporate India's rural commitment. And ensure that India shines as much in villages as it does in cities.

(Aroon Purie)

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