Dept. of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee

JIGYASA 2006: A National Level Paper Presentation Contest at Dept. of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee
Theme: "Rural India: Future IT Village"
Last Date of Paper Submission: April 5, 2006
Event Date: April 16, 2006

Jigyasa is a National Level Paper Presentation Contest that aims to stimulate the quest for knowledge by way of testing the exploratory, analytical and presentation skills of the participants. It provides a platform to analyze the feasibility of proposed ideas and solutions for existing economic development hurdles. At Jigyasa, a two way communication is encouraged by the way of cross-questioning resulting in further refinement of the proposed ideas.

The theme for Jigyasa 2006 is "Rural India: Future IT Village". At Jigyasa-2006, we shall try to explore Rural India whose development will enable the India Shining objective of attaining an 8% Y-o-Y GDP growth.

Rural India is generally associated with extreme poverty; agricultural laborers who often plough hard in the sun with malnutritioned bullocks to earn wages, which barely help them meet their basic requirements. But in today.s context, the above statement sounds to be a perfect example of a Hyperbole. With corporates and the government realizing the amazing potential that lies within the rural households, number of projects are being initiated which will change the face of Rural India.

Breaking through the tyranny of distance will cause unprecedented changes, opportunities and threats in many key areas like business, employment, and provision of government, banking, education and health services. Whether rural India will thrive or even survive in the future will depend on how successfully they make the unavoidable transition to being part of a new global economy.

Why Rural India is Being Pushed into Limelight???

There are various reasons why every industry is taking a very serious look at rural markets: -

About 285 million live in urban India, whereas 742 million reside in rural areas, constituting 72% of India’s population resides in its 6,00,000 villages.
More than a third of rural households in India derive their income from services or manufacturing - not from farming.
Size of rural market is estimated to be 42 million households, and rural market has been growing at five times the pace of the urban market.
More rural development initiatives by the government.
Growing rural infrastructure - thanks to Government initiatives.
Setting-up of channels like e-choupals by companies like ITC.
Increasing agricultural productivity leading to growth of rural disposable income.

Next

Contributed by -
Amit Kotla,
Team JIGYASA,
Department of Management Studies,
IIT Roorkee.

MBA Alumni \| MBA Students \| MBA Aspirants \| MBA Forums