Title: TARAHAAT: Connecting rural India to the global village

AUTHORS AFFILIATION

1. Taiba Farhat, Student MBA CISM, Amity Institute of Competitive

Intelligence and Strategic Management, Amity University, Noida, Uttar
Pradesh. taibafarhat@yahoo.com
2. Dr. Loveleen Gaur, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
Igaur@amity.edu
 ABSTARCT
TARAhaat is an Internet portal for rural India. It provides a wide range of information, as well as
educational and other services, earning revenues through fee for service, membership fees, and
commissions. The relevant content from market prices to marriage opportunities to educational
material is what drives this model at the village level. TARAhaat aims to stimulate employment
and economic opportunities in the communities it serves. TARAhaat is a mother portal with a
network of franchised internet village centers called TARAkendras. TARAkendras are outposts
where consumers and come use the internet according to their requirements.

ORGANIZERS
With the advent of internet, the current information boom has benefitted the whole of economy
by providing access to vital information anytime & anywhere but rural India is still deprived of
it. TARAhaat was started in 2000 in Jhansi, it was the internet portal for the villagers by
Development Alternatives (DA) and its marketing arm, Technology and Action for Rural
Advancement (TARA) to provide product and services to the underserved villages via the
internet.

CURRENT SCENARIO
There are 6,00,000 villages in India where around 700 million people 90% of internet
connections occurring in 20 major cities (Exhibit 1).
This gap of accessing information is knows as DIGITAL DIVIDEi. (ICT). Here we use it to
show the inequalities between urban and rural India in this age of digitalization. This great divide
is evident from the figure above.
TARAhaat is the need of the hour to bridge this gap of internet access, IT based services and
education among the rural Indians, though there is prior lack of computer education. TARAhaat
provides communities with an ICT-based virtual marketplaceii and an innovative business model
which cater to their needs.

KEY PEOPLE
The CEO Mr. Ashok Khosla, A former director in the Government of India, and current
president of DA and its marketing arm TARA.
The COO Mr. Rakesh Khanna, Director Business Development Unit of DA.
The CFO Mr. V. Ranjit Khosla, former sr. vice president and financial controller of IIT
Corporation and current president of Excelsior venture management New York.
The Manager Mr. Sanjay Prakash, manager of TARAgyan.
TARAhaat also employs TARAscouts who collect relevant information for the portal and
Marketing Associates (TMAs) for mobile distributions to communities and individuals
 KEY PARTNERS
TARAhaat works with number of suppliers by outsourcing their activities like All India Institute
of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) for health issues, Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU)
for distance learning, Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd for satellite connectivity, James
Martin & Co for software and All back-end Web site services are outsourced to a company
called 4CPlus.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE
TARAhaat is targeting villages in India, they have no plans to establish in major cities, which
still leave 945 million of rural population. The market is segmented into 5 different habitats-
cities(pop. below 5,00,000-50,000), block towns(pop. 15,000-50,000), large villages(pop. 5,000
to 15,000), medium villages(pop. 2,000-5,000) and small villages(pop < 2,000).
Each TARAkendra covers 5 km radius area, user penetration rates within each area depend upon
factors like age, education, purchasing power, distance to other kendras and availability of
substitutes for the services provided.
TARAhaat aimed at establishing 45,000 kendras at the end of 5 years since TARAhaat started in
2001, which it successfully completed. (see exhibit 2)

VISION
To empower people to achieve their aspirations by using Information and Communication
Technology (ICT).1

MISSION
To be the premier corporate resource delivering relevant products and services enabled by
Information and Communication Technology (ICT).2

OBJECTIVES
Creation of sustainable rural livelihood
Enrichment of rural Indian economy
Empowering rural population with computer enabled education
Making villagers aware of usage and applications of ICT
Coping with social issues like women and girl child education and health
Employment generation
Additional income for local crafts industry
Governance and resource conservation
Intends to be the leading supplier of information, services and market opportunities
Hopes to tap substantial buying power of rural Indians and corporations interest in these
markets
Promoting rural entrepreneurship
 OPERATIONS
its operation is very simple, small children, village ladies can also operate it with ease. The
computers provided in the outposts called TARAkendras are equipped with local languages of
each region, it also has animations, self-explanatory pictures and diagrams for those who cannot
read, the villagers can even talk to computer with voice-over.
TARAhaat is basically a horizontal portal, but several domains, such as medical services,
commodity trade, and distance education, are strong vertical elements. It is also looking at
employment generation as one of its goals, which will be done by hundreds of new opening for
people working for TARAdhabas, TARAvans and TARAvendors who supply goods to
customers.
To manage its network of franchised kendras, TARAhaat has employed decentralized network
support for developing, training, managing, supporting and servicing the kendras within their
domain.

IT ARCHITECTURE
As TARAhaat is working towards towards connecting rural india to the ICT, its IT framework is
such that all product, services and systems can work in an online-offline, dial-up and broadband
environment.
TARAhaat has made it sure that telecommunications infrastucture reaches the rural communities
.
The main mode of connectivity is dial up through POTS (plain old telephone service)iii, which is
simple wireline telecommunication connection. Six of the centers also have extended C band
satellite dishes, but due to its high cost, TARAhaat has limited bandwidth available. In places
where dial up connectivity is not available TARAhaat has set up its own VSATs (very small
aperture terminal)iv, from the knowled that teledensity in India was only 2.5% recorded in 2008,
out of this the teledensity in rural India is even less.

As rural tele density is very less, this is the reason that TARAhaat has now started relying on
satellite connectivity.
TARAhaat has developed a NETWORK SUPPORT SOFTWARE in house to capture all
financial , managerial and marketing data and deliver appropriate reports in order to enable each
function to identify the vital signs of the organization involved. TARAkendra managers receive
information about their financial health, identify market demographics they serve and evaluate
demand by product or service for the revenues.

TARAhaats core is built on B2Cv links, but it is also generating B2Bvi and C2Cvii traffic. Its
subsidiary portal TARAbazaar provides urban and overseas consumers to access directly village
craftspeople, without letting villagers to move out of their locations.
Large food processing companies can now directly negotiate and monitor direct agreements with
farmers for agricultural commodities
TARAhaat is also a superbazaar, by giving instant access to all type products needed by the
house holds.
B2C Activities:
TARAhaats portal available as a home in all computers in TARAkendras provide information
and interactive online services to users, it is also trying to get the knowledge of consumer needs
by consumer research, it has accomplished surveying around 10,000 rural families. Based on the
results TARAhaat has built 18 channels of content like health, programs for education,
agriculture, insurance, entrepreneurial programs, entertainment, matrimony, astrology, etc. All
this information is available on webpage. Portal also provides interactive services like e-mail and
chat, users can request government redressal forms, submit complaints to local officials, set
doctors appointment, post jobs, check daily commodity rates and many more. It has also added
e-commerceviii services to the website for goods, agricultural produce, seeds and fertilizers.

B2B Activities:
TARAhaat management believes that companys growing network can be of great significant
value to multinationals, large national corporations and local dealers looking for the channel in
rural markets.
B2B activities also include data mining, web hosting, supply chain management, advertising and
marketing.
TARAhaat also provides consulting to people looking for starting technology based mini
enterprises by TARAgyan courses availaible on website, TARAgurus are freelance consultants
providing personalized mentoring and access to finance, marketing and technology support
services.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED

TARAhaat is offering a wide range of products and services to achieve their goal of empowering
rural population of India.

TARAkendra - Centers which provide internet access to the villagers, if unavailable

offline services are also available through digital media delivered manually or through
802.11 mobile server.

TARAgyan TARAhaats education division, its expected to be the largest single

revenue part of the company, TARAgyan uses ICT to shift from one way to two way
communication. Mentoring is provided by experts, it provides education for children in
school or college, for people thinking about setting their own enterprises, learning new
and basic skills and for those who are open minded to changes and development. Thus,
TARAgyan is an evolutionary responsive process. Till 2006 around 28 Lakh students
were reported in this program (see exhibit 3)

TARAakshar (Angoothe se kalam tak) It is TARAhaats literacy program. Till now

India has the largest illiterate population and one the major reasons for this is usefulness
of education and vicinity of schools in rural areas. But literacy rate has shown growth
 since independence ie. From 3.2% in 1881 to 2% in 1947, and from then the growth has
been much more.(see exhibit 4 and 5)
According to the reports of NSSO current literacy rate in rural areas has increased to 71%
compared to urban areas which us 86%. (see Exhibit 6)

TARAakshar has 100 minutes/day for 30 days, after 30 days every student is able to read
at least 10 words per minute and read hindi. It has master trainers and well qualified
teachers, it is the most fastest and efficient way of education.TARAakshar has introduced
the concept of gyan choupaliix, where women can come to location to access games,
books and relevant literature to communicate health, hygiene and rights to them.
TARAakshar is divided into different modules like literacy module, life skills module
which enhances the personality of neo literates, vocational skill module which make the
individual employable and enterprise development module which promotes
entrepreneurship in rural India. In 2016 around 95% of women were made literate.(see
exhibit 5)

TARAbazaar This portal facilitates the farmers and industries to access the products
and services, it provides C2C services connecting overseas and urban customer rural
people and vice versa, it will provide opportunities for income flows to villagers. Now
large MNCs can directly negotiate and monitor agreements with farmers.

TARAdak This is a portal which provides e-mail and chat services. It enables people to
connect to their families far away without moving from their places. It supports 11 Indian
languages including English.

TARAvan TARAvan solves the problem of delivery of goods and services where
courier services do not exist. An order is placed through TARAhaat and its passed to the
TARAvendors who are suppliers or dealers, now they pack the goods and send it to local
TARAvan franchise which delivers the packets to customers and also collects the
payments from them.

TARAcard It is a card which helps rural people to receive good and services on credit

TARAguru These people are experts who provide consultancy to villagers, they
respond to the queries made through TARAkendras.

TARAscouts These people collect relevant information from the portal

TARAvendors They are retailers/suppliers/dealers who own the stores which have the
products catering to TARAbazaar.
TARAhaats portal also allows access to services like weather, astrology, job search and
yellow pages.
 CHALLENGES
TARAhaat provides extensive supports to its franchises like financial, IT training,
internet connectivity, business and marketing , the lack of literacy among its intended
users pose proplems to its business strategy.
Telecom service falls short of open competition in rural areas, therefore prices are high
and services are poor and TARAhaat is dependent on these network so it faces challenges
in its infrastructure.
Software system is a challenge as its commands are in English where users face
problems.
TARAhaat faces a competition from private sector companies in small rural markets in
the field of education and online access of services. In large rural market there may be
competition from local cyber cafes and IT training centers. It may also face competition
from federal and state government sponsored internet initiatives like Gyandootx, which
is an e governancexi project in Madhya Pradesh, which has established 31 internet
kiosks. Indian ministry of information technology (MIT) has sponsored community
information centers in northeastern states of India.
Obtaining basic electricity and connectivity in rural areas has been a serious obstacle.
Technical difficulties have been there in creating local language, diverse set of needs for
different customersof different regions.
Social environment also poses challenges, a franchise in Bhatinda faced early shut down
as the villagers thought that TARAkendra would disrupt their peaceful existence. Some
people do not send the girls to kendras because they feel that they would be harassed by
boys of neighbouring villages.

IMPACT
Usage of internet has made life of rural people easier, moreover it has benefitted as business
model. TARAhaat provides wide range of services through its different branches which ensures
multiple revenue.

Customers use these services and are required to pay a very affordable fee. The revenue
which is generated is being used by TARAhaat for further research and development.
TARAhaat has created social awareness amongst rural population, the people who were
reluctant in sending their daughters to far off places for education are now in support due
to availability of computers and internet access. It has been reported that in a
TARAkendra of Bhatinda, girls were dominant. When TARAhaat started the ratio of
males was 4 times to females but now the mix has successfully shifted to 3:2.
Rural children have now become confident about their future because they can equally
make use of internet as compared to the city counterparts. TARAhaat gives a boost to
their creativity and hopes it will bring out entrepreneurial efforts from these children and
add to the rural economy.
Previously there were middle men involved in the buying of produce from farmers, but
now as farmers can check the prevailing mandi prices through the portal, they can make
appropriate decisions of when and where to sell their goods, eliminating the middle men,
this will increase the fianancial yield of farmers several times.
On a closing note it can be concluded that despite of many challenges it faces , TARAhaat is a
promising project which will not only help in raising the living standards of rural people and
acquainting them with information technology but also add to the rural economy as it aims at
creating employment and entrepreneurial ventures.
TARAhaat will hopefully change the structure of rural India, though it has a substantial amount
of competition coming its way, it will be able to make a niche for itself as it has a huge network
of products and services, it is a single solution to every query. TARAhaat has just landed itself at
the right time in the right place.

Teaching notes:
i. Digital divide: It is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or
impact of information and communication technologies
ii. Virtual Market: Here the buyers and sellers do not interact physically , but the exchange
happens over the internet.
iii. POTS (plain old telephone service): Most basic type of internet connection offered over
telephone connection, it employs analog signal transmission over copper loops.
iv. VSAT (Very small aperture terminal satellite): Two way satellite ground station with a
dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters, it is used to transmit narrowband data
v. B2B Activities: Business to business, one business makes commercial transaction with
other, it typically occurs when a business is sourcing material for their production
process.
vi. B2C Activities: Business to consumers, transactions conducted directly between
company and consumers who are end users of its products and services.
vii. C2C Activities: Consumer to consumer, people come together to buy and sell items,
markets are the place where it happens.
viii. E-commerce: Commercial transactions conducted electronically over the internet or
facilitating the trading in products or services using the computer network, such as the
internet or online social networks.
ix. Gyan choupali: Place where wwomen can come together to a location and have access to
all internet related services.
x. Gyandoot: An e- governance project, it is an intranet based G2C service delivery portal.
xi. E governance: An application of of information and communication technology (ICT)
for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication
transactions, intergration of various stand alone systems and services between G2C, G2B,
G2G as well as back office processes and interactions within entire government
framework.
Exhibit1- Internet usage in rural vs urban India over the years

Exhibit 2- TARAkendra roll-out schedule

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
No.of Kendras 328 4,165 13,525 22,725 34,226 47,350
No. of users 1,61,820 28,11,480 1,02,66,500 2,00,22,000 3,41,53,100 5,35,69,000
Users per
Kendra 493 675 759 881 998 1,131
Year 1 begins in April 2001

Exhibit 3 Student enrollment in TARAgyan

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
No. of students 12,094 1,84,695 6,47,595 13,03,665 20,85,479 28,49,265
Students per kendra 37 44 48 57 61 60
Year 1 begins in April 2001
Exhibit 4 Chart showing number of women made literate by TARAakshar

Exhibit 5 Indias Literacy rate growth over the years

Exhibit 6 Current literacy rate rural vs urban India
 REFERENCES

www.e-agriculture.org
1 & 2- www.tarahaat.com
www.devalt.org
www.tarahaat.com
www.wri.org
www.samhita.org
www.taraakshar.org
www.wikipedia.org
www.trai.gov.in
NSSO Survey report in Economic Times
www.thehindu.com