In keeping with its mandate to empower the rural and marginalized communities through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to integrate them with the mainstream economy, TARAhaat’s latest initiative – ICT-enabled Enterprise Development and Support Services (EDSS) – is a positive step forward. It focuses on providing entrepreneurship opportunities to youth, women and Self Help Groups (SHGs) through the rapidly expanding network of TARAkendras, TARAhaat’s rural business-cum-community centres. EDSS adds a critical dimension to the scope of ICT-enabled services provided by TARAhaat.
 
EDSS was conceived to address one of the most critical needs of rural Indian communities, namely, jobs closer to home. Fostering local entrepreneurship is seen as the key to addressing the challenge of creating 15 million new jobs needed every year outside the agriculture and government sectors in India, and also to provide solutions for the issues of unemployment, rural migration and an expanding population. EDSS, therefore, powerfully supports the Government of India’s focus on rural development through job creation via enterprise development and addresses the broader objectives of the Eighth Millennium Development Goal that calls for cooperation with the private sector to address youth unemployment and to make available the benefits of new technologies to one and all.
 
Enterprise Development and Support Services

The EDSS is a unique and comprehensive ICT-based programme that supports aspiring and established entrepreneurs through every element of a business. The primary components of the service are:
 
l Any enterprise package that provides technical training in a specific type of business, imparts the fundamentals of how to manage the enterprise, and also conveys customised concepts on how to establish the market and forge financial linkages.
 
l An Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is usually customised for the background and life experience of rural citizens to enhance their understanding of how to set up a business, and plan and manage the same.

l An Ask the Expert and an online Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) service provides ongoing business the necessary support, all in the local language and wherever practicable in the local idiom. Additionally, an outreach programme to identify potential entrepreneurs is currently being rigorously field tested to ensure that the EDSS programme benefits the maximum number of individuals.

Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP)

The objective of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme is to motivate the rural youth towards entrepreneurship, develop their business understanding and skills, and empower them to independently establish and manage successful enterprises. It covers the basics of identification, and setting up and managing the businesses to meet the needs of budding as well as existing entrepreneurs. A week-long training is delivered through multimedia and audio-visual tools.
 
Enterprise Packages (MCR and Poultry Farming)

The enterprise packages have been developed to provide rural unemployed persons with the options to acquire technical training in a variety of businesses. The endeavour has been started with broiler-based poultry farming and Micro Concrete Roofing (MCR) tiles manufacturing. These enterprises have been selected on the basis of scalability, sustainability and replicability. MCR, a technology developed by DA, has been specifically selected, being a waste recycling-based enterprise. The enterprise packages teach the entrepreneur about the entire business, from an introduction to the sector, to the detailed production process, to specific management methods. Several other enterprises have been identified and the ICT transformation has begun, which will soon join the EP offerings.
 
Web-based Business Support System

The web-based business support system provides entrepreneurs with ongoing support, even after the training period is complete. It is a computer-based system that does not rely on live internet connectivity and has a very user-friendly, multi-lingual interface. The system integrates two applications: the first is an exhaustive database of questions categorized by enterprise, domain and region, called the FAQ database. The second application is called the Ask the Expert service, and allows the entrepreneurs to submit queries to which he/she has not found answers in the FAQ database.

Local Consultants (TARAgurus)

Local consultants, known as TARAgurus, represent the virtual TARAguru or teacher in physical form and assist the entrepreneurs with on-site problems and also provide standard services such as project proposal corrections, creating linkages and so on.
Integration with Backend Processes

To meet the objective of the EDS programme, identifying and negotiating partnerships and alliances with the government as also corporate and civil society organisations is mandatory. Several avenues for building such alliances have been explored, and selected alliances have either been consummated or are in final stages of negotiation. Some of the principal ones are the Regional Rural Bank, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Regional Employment Exchange Bureau, Uttar Pradesh Udyog Mandal, Central Bank, District Industries Centre, Khadi & Village Industries Commission, and NABARD.

ICT : Applications and Aproaches

The best part of our experience with EDSS is that it has silenced all the skeptics who used to ask: Will ICT Work? Yes, ICT is working. Indeed, it is contributing more than what was expected in terms of quality, consistency, learning and adaptability. The success of the EDSS programme can easily be gauged from the growing number of entrepreneurs who have successfully set up their enterprises and also by the number of testimonials furnished by them. There is an ever-increasing demand of aspirants to join the ICT-based entrepreneurship training programs conducted by TARAhaat.
 
To date, more than 500 people, including SHG members, have been trained and more than 50 of them have successfully set up their enterprises. Of these, an impressive 22% comprises women. EDSS has proved itself by contributing significantly, as also playing a vital role in their improved standard of living and the local economy.

Enterprises for EDSS Trained Entrepreneurs

EDSS has helped numerous budding entrepreneurs in transforming their dreams into reality. Till date, it has helped these entrepreneurs up a variety of both farm and non-farm based enterprises such as poultry farms, dairy, kirana (grocery) shops, computer centres, pickle manufacturing units, candle-making units, beauty parlours, roadside hotels and dhabas (eateries), cycle repairing shops and shamiyana (tent-house) businesses.
 
Entrepreneurship Training With the Help of NABARD

In order to assist beneficiaries who need specific knowledge of any business, particularly in building material-related enterprises, a customized version of EDP, called the Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme (REDP), has been initiated within the Development Alternatives group with the support of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
 
During the last one year, the pilot testing phase of the EDSS programme has helped gain deep insights about training of rural entrepreneurs. Particularly, training of SHG members has been a great learning experience. Several factors make SHGs different from other client groups, especially the youth. SHGs operate in a completely different manner as compared to individual entrepreneurs. Some of the key distinguishing characteristic features of SHGs are: working in groups and clusters, democratic style of functioning, gender focus, low literacy levels, saving habits, and their social leanings. Therefore, training SHG members requires a completely different approach, technique and training tools. Based on our learnings in training the experimental group of SHG members, a new version of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is being developed. It will be adapted and fully customised to the needs of the SHG members to ensure that they can assimilate the concepts of entrepreneurship with ease. The initial field tests with the customised version of EDP have been carried out successfully and a final blueprint is almost ready to be field tested in the very near future.
 
Our experiences during the last one year have further strengthened our belief that rural communities living at the bottom of the pyramid also need world class ICT-enabled products like EDSS to transform their lives and scale up the social and economic ladder. We hope that in the years to come, EDSS will play a significant role in addressing a critical need in rural India – employment — and will continue to mould the lives of all those who aspire to set up their own micro enterprises and become their own masters. q
 

Praveen Manikpuri
and Surender Rana
pmanikpuri@tarahaat.com
srana@tarahaat.com

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