According to the third annual edition of Accenture Research, “Masters of Rural Markets: From Touchpoints to Trustpoints - Winning over India's Aspiring Rural Consumers,” rural consumers are particularly aspiring or striving to purchase branded, high quality products. Consequently, businesses in India are optimistic about growth of the country's rural consumer markets, which is expected to be faster than urban consumer markets. The report highlights the better networking among rural consumers and their tendency to proactively seek information via multitude sources to be better informed while making purchase dCSIsions. Importantly, the wider reach of media and telecommunication services has provided information to India’s rural consumers and is influencing their purchase dCSIsions. In line with general trend, rural consumers are evolving towards a broader notion of value provided by products and services which involves aspects of price combined with utility, aesthetics and features, and not just low prices.
The hinterlands in India consist of about 650,000 villages. These villages are inhabited by about 850 million consumers making up for about 70 per cent of population and contributing around half of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Consumption patterns in these rural areas are gradually changing to increasingly resemble the consumption patterns of urban areas. Some of India's largest consumer companies serve one-third of their consumers from rural India. Owing to a favourable changing consumption trend as well as the potential size of the market, rural India provides a large and attractive investment opportunity for private companies.
India’s per capita GDP in rural regions has grown at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.2 per cent since 2000. The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in rural and semi-urban India is expected to cross US $20 billion mark by 2018 and reach US $100 billion by 2025@.
Following are some of the major investments and developments in the Indian rural sector.
The Government of India has planned various initiatives to provide and improve the infrastructure in rural areas which can have a multiplier effect in increasing movements of goods, services and thereby improve earnings potential of rural areas subsequently improving consumption.
E-commerce players like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Infibeam and mobile wallet major Paytm have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the government to reach rural areas by connecting with the government’s common service centres (CSCs) being setup in villages as part of the ‘Digital India’ initiative.
With the increasing demand for skilled labour, the Indian government plans to train 500 million people by 2022, and is looking out for corporate players and entrepreneurs to help in this venture. Corporate, government, and educational organisations are joining in the effort to train, educate and produce skilled workers.
The Union Cabinet has cleared the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchaee Yojana (PMKSY), with a proposed outlay of Rs 50,000 crore (US $7.5 billion) spread over a period of five years starting from 2015-16. The scheme aims to provide irrigation to every village in India by converging various ongoing irrigation schemes into a single focused irrigation programme. The Government of India aims to spend Rs 75,600 crore (US $11.34 billion) to supply electricity through separate feeders for agricultural and domestic consumption in rural areas. This initiative is aimed at improving the efficiency of electricity distribution and thereby providing uninterrupted power supply to rural regions of India.
To promote agriculture-based businesses, the Government of India has started ‘A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship’ (ASPIRE). Under this scheme, a network of technology centres and incubation centres would be set up to accelerate entrepreneurship and to promote start-ups for innovation and entrepreneurship in agro-industry.
The Government of India seeks to promote innovation and technology development in the remote rural and tribal areas. The government plans to form a committee to study various innovations and submit their reports to the concerned Department or Ministry. The programme called the ‘Nav Kalpana Kosh’ aims to improve rural areas at various levels, such as governance, agriculture and hygiene.
Banks are working to set up rural ATMs, which will dispense smaller denomination currency notes. "We have encouraged banks to find a solution for bringing in rural ATMs... banks will have to find an appropriate technology solution for a different type of ATM to care for the needs of the rural people," as per Mr R Gandhi, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an association of Indian businesses, plans to set up a centre of excellence for start-ups in smaller towns across the country to help create a conducive environment for their incubation and growth.
As is the trend with urban India, consumers in the rural regions are also expected to embrace online purchases over time and drive consumption digitally. The rural regions are already well covered by basic telecommunication services and are now witnessing increasing penetration of computers and smartphones. Taking advantage of these developments, online portals are being viewed as key channels for companies trying to enter and establish themselves in the rural market. The Internet has become a cost-effective means for a company looking to overcome geographical barriers and broaden its reach.
Market research firm Nielsen expects India’s rural FMCG market to reach a size of US $100 billion by 2025. Another report by McKinsey Global Institute forecasts the annual real income per household in rural India to rise to 3.6 per cent 2025, from 2.8 per cent in the last 20 years.
Exchange Rate Used: INR 1 = US $0.015 as on December 17, 2015
References: Media Reports, Press Releases, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Accenture Report, Nielsen Report
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