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Many programmes has been riding on rural e-commerce and outlines that e-commerce may act as a catalyst of rural development. These programmes identifies the core strength of a village cluster and infuse technology, impart vocational training with state-of-the-art technology, create a consortium of industry, research, academia and successful co-operative societies, give entrepreneurial training and incorporate the use of Internet. Some of these programmes are outlined below.

Indext-C, a Gujarat Government endeavor was created to provide information and guidance in organizing the Cottage & Rural Industries sector as a catalyst for a better quality of life for artisans and small entrepreneurs. The Cottage Industry-Global Market (CIGM) project works with women’s craft cooperatives in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh to support capacity building and local development. K2Crafts (http://www.k2crafts.com/) is the online marketplace for the CIGM project, established to market the cooperatives' hand-made, world-quality shawls. PEOPLink, a non-profit organization, guides communities of women in countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Haiti and Kenya, involved with handicrafts, helping them to place their products online, and building a global network of Trading Partners (TPs). The TPs have digital cameras that allow easy uploading of images, which are in turn used as promos to retail and wholesale buyers in the industrialized countries. AsCent (The Asian Center for Entrepreneurial Initiatives) has made an attempt to introduce CAD/CAM technologies to artisans in the Belgaum district of Karnataka, alongside online advertising and sales.

Many of these programs are still in their early days. Still, they are well-positioned to bring about long term economic and social changes in the lives of artisans by laying the foundation for a new kind of rural e-commerce based on greater information flows. The advantages of rural e-commerce are manifold.

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* Contributed by -
Lijo Isac,
MBA (FT), Batch of 2006,
Faculty Of Management Studies,
Delhi University, Delhi.