It really feels that India is shining when we see something like IT going all the way out to provide help to the needy people in rural India. This feeling doubles (or may be triples) when IT helps the farmers of the country considering their plight and ill-treatment at the hands of the middlemen. After we told you about a dedicated portal only for tours to rural areas of India, this time it is a helpline for Indian farmers with IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) support in 7 regional languages including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannad, Telugu and Tamil (another 7 languages would be added soon).
According to some statistics by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rural subscribers form a formidable block over one-fifth of the total mobile user base in India. And this penetration is what Drishti Soft has taken advantage of to launch a phone-based information service for educating and assisting the farmers in making important crop-related decisions and planning a rich harvest. Although such an implementation was in the lines for many years but huge cost requirements was what keeping the system back. But Drishti’s Ameyo communications suite promises to solve the problem by offering the interactive voice – helpline technology to the farmers at an affordable price.
Although this may sound very impressive but if we look at the ground reality, things do not look so good. As with all installations in rural areas, maintenance is a major issue. Even if the interactive voice – helpline system is installed successfully, but after that very less emphasis is laid on repairs and other major issues such as power and training to the farmers for using the device. So, unless such issues are addressed and eradicated fully, no IT offering for the farmers / rural India would be a major success.
Original Image Via flickr /ananth
Absolutely true assesment Debjit!
Taking a deeper look. The Drishti press release says: “The farmers can create their personalized service comprising of localized weather updates, crop advisory, agricultural rural news and market prices in 11 states, from a wide menu of 250 crops and 1200 local and national markets, in the local language of their choice.”
So what is new here? We have a number of other players offering much advanced services. To say that this is India’s first helpline is clearly wishful thinking.
Debjit, while your assesment for the success of rural VAS is accurate, I must say it would be good if you could make an assesment of what all is already there in the market.
I would like to point out that this is not the first company which is providing rural IVRS. A company named handygo has been providing rural IVRS services not only to farmers but also to other categories like finance, education, live stock, weather etc. Also the interview of CEO of Handygo Mr Praveen Rajpal was also covered by Watblog.