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Ashutosh Sinha is managing VIMPL as rural distribution business involving Villgro stores and village level entrepreneurs (VLE). After spending two years in evolving the business model which provides sustainable products to improve rural livelihood, he has recently started selling FMCG products through VIMPL network. As he decides to expand the business, he has to make choices about strategic path of horizontal expansion versus vertical expansion. The expansion decision is also linked with choosing the right type of VLEs. The case provides detailed description of VLE operations and examines the challenges in building last mile delivery models using entrepreneurs.

Despite the increasing technological capabilities and its affordability, a significantly large proportion of developing nations’ population are still lacking resources to own basic information and communication technologies such as computer and internet. This suggests that majority of the citizens from developing countries (e.g. India) are also not able to access and use emerging electronic government applications and services. This is leading to a further and bigger digital divide gap that already exists between rural and urban as well as economically less and more able population. To reduce the widening digital divide, India has innovated Common Services Centres (CSCs) as means to deliver public services electronically to citizens at the village level. This viewpoint paper aims to discuss some of the challenges and obstacles of such CSCs and to offer some recommendations for their effective implementations and sustainable operations.

This is a viewpoint paper that is based on authors’ awareness of the context as well as knowledge and issues relevant to the research topic. A number of appropriate and current citations have been utilised to illustrate the current state on the topic as well as to support authors’ arguments presented in this paper.

The paper identified a number of key issues relevant for effective implementation and sustainable operation of CSCs. The authors present their views and recommendations related to the following key issues: connectivity problems, lack of or delayed rollout of government to citizen (G2C) services, demotivated village-level entrepreneurs due to lack of G2C services, low computer literacy, lack of awareness about services and facilities, lack of adequate training and support, poor provisioning of an effective infrastructure, lack of support from the concerned government officials, inaccessible locations, burden of high investment, corruption at the government level, lack of skilled manpower to run the CSCs, lack of power supply, language barrier, lack of space, problem with maintenance and management of connectivity network and problem caused by the Naxalite and anarchist activity.

The discussion and recommendations presented in this paper would be valuable to various agencies (both from public and private sectors) as well as policymakers for effective implementation and long-term sustainability of CSCs. The approach discussed in this paper offers an effective way to diffuse e-government applications and services in other developing countries (particularly resource-constrained nations from African, Asian and Latin American regions).

This study aims to investigate the relationship link between societal and governmental support factors, individuals’ self-efficacy, experience and outcome expectations in framing nascent social entrepreneurs' intentions to establish e-government service centres in rural areas by using the integrated model approach of Hockert’s (2017) social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) theoretical model and social cognitive career theory (SCCT).

Using a convenient sampling strategy, 615 survey samples were obtained through a questionnaire from e-governance-based social entrepreneurs in Karnataka. The primary data and theorised model are analysed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This research findings indicate that appointing agency support, perceived societal support (PSS), government support, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy (SE-SE), public image, prior experience and outcome expectations substantially predicted SEI to establish an e-government service centre. Hence, prior experience and PSS were insignificant regarding direct influence outcome expectations towards establishing e-governance social ventures.

The present research study initially explored the social entrepreneur's intention to provide e-public services to people in rural and distant areas to fulfil social needs. Furthermore, this research revealed that new antecedents of government support, appointing agency support and public image influence the social entrepreneur's intention to establish e-governance service centres. These research findings evaluate the contribution of the government, appointing agencies, social entrepreneurs and citizens to make a framework for the inclination of e-government service centres to create a social impact in rural and remote areas.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

Teaching Objective 1: Students will describe specific characteristics of the rural market in India and will draw out the differences vis-a-vis the urban markets.

Teaching Objective 2: Students will describe about the push versus pull strategy and various channels of distribution in rural areas.

Teaching Objective 3: The students will explain the 4As of the rural marketing mix and apply the same in the context of the case.

Teaching Objective 4: The case can be applied with respect to the health-belief model to help students analyse the behaviour change model.

Teaching Objective 5: Students will analyse the challenges associated with supply chain and logistics in rural areas.

This case study looked at a start-up company Rugved Hygienecare Industries Private Limited and their sanitary napkin brand “Abolee” designed and targeted for rural women in India. Onkar Charegaonkar and Mithila Charegaonkar started this venture in December 2017, realizing that sanitary napkins solved a greater purpose of helping women hygienically manage menstruation, and at the same time, there was no threat to this product because over a period of time, it became a necessity of life. Onkar and Mithila believed in giving back to the society and at the same time generate revenue for their company. Onkar and Mithila needed to make a decision with respect to the distribution structure for Abolee to improve penetration in different rural areas of Maharashtra. Onkar and Mithila needed to strategize to create a remarkable impact in the rural areas. There were multiple challenges that were faced by Abolee, such as: creating awareness about hygienically managing menstruation options among women, ensuring that women consumers continue to use hygienic menstruation management material, creating a preference for Abolee among women consumers and deciding on whether to focus on driving sales through existing channel partners or to invest in finding out alternative avenues for selling “Abolee” in rural areas.

This case study was primarily written for understanding rural marketing aspects of marketing management courses at both the undergraduate level and the postgraduate level. This case study also indicated about the role of gender and its impact on consumer behaviour in rural areas. Although this case study was related to the rural Indian market, it can also be related to other emerging economies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing.

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to develop a framework to implement electronic delivery systems for connecting federal government with rural citizens using banking infrastructure as a reintermediation platform; and second, to understand the challenges faced by banks in reintermediation for financial inclusion (FI).

This exploratory research adopts case study method to gain insights of the challenges faced by banks in e-government services for FI. In-depth structured interviews are conducted with key respondents: branch managers heading banks in rural areas.

Preliminary results based on in-depth interviews with branch managers of banks suggest that banks leverage facilitators called Bank Mitras (BM) (friends from bank as per the local language) to disseminate services offered by the banks to rural customers at each village. However, a key challenge faced by banks is the increased dependency on bank employees to complete the process of e-government transactions by the beneficiaries because of trust factor.

This exploratory research builds on the case study approach using in-depth interviews with the branch managers of five banks as key respondents to develop the preliminary research framework for FI.

Policymakers can design banking systems to enhance transparency by implementing technologies and decentralizing routine transactions to citizens by enhancing the role of facilitators (BM).

FI aims to reach out and empower citizens with banking facilities for disbursing e-government services. This process needs to be refined for the rural population of India to understand and better use the e-government services and schemes.

Insights from in-depth interviews with key respondents of the banks were collated and augmented with literature to enhance the rigor of the exploratory research.

The purpose of this research is to highlight issues related to the management of indigenous and scientific knowledge, and the approach towards transferring these from one community to another, to therefore reduce risk in communities living with multiple hazards and disasters in cyclone, flood, earthquake and drought prone regions of India.

A case study based approach and secondary research have been used to understand the disaster‐related problems and the mitigation strategy. Lessons are drawn from Indian scenarios such as Orissa super cyclone, Bhuj earthquake, etc.

The study highlights a few important points for practising managers/officers. Rural telecentres need to evolve for relief and rehabilitation work. Indigenous knowledge is more in tacit form; therefore, a carefully designed strategy would be needed to manage this.

The study focuses on many practical issues related to disaster management in India. These issues are derived from past experiences.

The research provides insight to researchers and practising officers/managers. Newer insights have been presented on tacit‐knowledge management and use of scientific understanding on the management of natural disasters.

Although growing Internet penetration in the hinterlands has attracted agribusinesses to promote digital platforms, farmers are sceptical about using them. The literature discusses agricultural platforms from the theoretical perspective of technological determinism, where the platforms are developed and promoted by firms in a top-down manner to be accepted by farmers. However, this approach results in poorly configured platforms with limited utility for farmers. It is evident from the existing literature that the mere creation of a platform business is not sufficient to guarantee adoption by users. Hence, this study explores how to make the agricultural platform more attractive for farmers.

The present study is based on a discrete choice experiment performed on 126 Indian farmers using agricultural platforms. The data were analysed using the conditional logistic regression method.

The study suggests that farmers expect government and cooperative entities to be also embedded with the platforms. Complementary features such as prompt service, competitive pricing and farm credit were identified as essential attributes. Further, the platforms should enable smallholders to trade farm produce by providing a mechanism for real-time online nudging and bargaining with buyers.

The study is based on the applications of random utility theory. The research has utility for Agtech managers, cooperative institutions and agricultural policymakers.

This is one of the first studies focussing on agricultural platform design from the farmers' perspective. The study implies that incorporating preferred attributes can help practitioners configure platforms to benefit farmers with prospects concerning farm management decisions.

The introduction of the 22 member countries of the 4+10+2+6 model of the Asian economy is the immediate task. Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar constitute the now-famous 4+10 model. Following the principle of inclusion, Mongolia, Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka, as they belong to the regional map of the continent of Asia, are the eight remaining member countries (see Chapter 1). An overview of Asia's 22 member continental economy the AE-22, with its 3.6 billion people (2006) who have made the region of Asia their home in a land area of 20.5 million km² should be welcome. To put these figures in perspective, the AE-22 comprises only 13.7 percent of the world's land area, but is home to over half the world's population. Tables 2.1–2.4, presented below, illustrate the various figures relating to population, land area, GDP, and GDP per capita of the member nations of the AE-22.

Economies and societies are not digitally isolated. Digital technologies are widely recognised as key drivers of information dissemination, knowledge sharing, income and employment. Digital technologies also influence the interlinkages of digitalisation, gender and labour market outcomes. Digital technologies impact every sphere of day-to-day life. It impacts ways of communication, trade and business; influences networking abilities; shapes societal norms, attitudes and behaviours. It is hence argued that digital technologies may have crucial implications for women's participation in the workforce.

Gender equality and increasing women's workforce participation is an important goal under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Research indicates that women are mainly involved in agricultural work, blue-collar formal work, while collar formal work, and entrepreneurship. Digital technologies significantly impact the ways of working in all these sectors. Consequently, it is argued that digital technologies influence women's participation across all such types of work.

This chapter aims at unravelling the linkages between digital technologies and women's workforce participation. To this end, the influences of digital technologies on women's participation in agricultural work, blue-collar formal work, white-collar formal work and entrepreneurship are discussed. The implications and impacts of the use of broadband, internet and mobile technologies are also discussed. This chapter also includes important theories of women's workforce participation and discusses them in light of digitalisation.