Anil Alur

Mobile phone are very popular in rural India. Probably they are the best technology ever made for BOP. As I said in my previous blog illiteracy is the greatest challenge for using PCs in rural regions. No wonder there is an obvious solution to keep use computers with a different GUI.May be PCs are best used in rural production center but a mobile phone seems to be an obvious choice for an Individual. Niti is right, it will be a great way to teach basic business. It will be easier to teach usage of 10 numbers and then teach them to use calculators.
Single day sessions on how to effectively use mobiles for there business will be a great idea, but this can work only Mobile service providers consider this market. They can probably do this as a part of CSR activities ! Well it’s for profit.

We have seen lot of articles about the existing digital divide between the urban and rural India.But why do we talk about the digital divide when rural regions lack even the most basic of basic requirement like light,water,food…..
Now lets go back to the basics. Computer, they truly amazing. Can do wonders. Change your life style. If they can change yours they can changes any life. When we talk about rural India, echoupal has proved what computers and internet can do for Indian villages. Thats nice, but wait a minute, there is a basic flaw !!! villagers need to know how to read and write. Even if they literates, they need to know english. Every Indian state has it’s own language. Do you get computers and keyboard with all these languages ? And where do you get trainers who can teach computers in these languages ? Or do you first teach them english and then computers ?
So how did echoupal do ? Well ITC has resources to help them.They hired people who can help villagers. But you may not be able to do that. There needs be a practical solution. So if you are trying to build a computers to help the Indian rural regions its not only about the cost, it about literacy, its about linguistcs. Here is the solution:
“Build a software that is illiterate proof, and probably use the same to teach them how to read and write.” Isn’t is simple?

The idea is pretty simple. Maximize the impact for a single family. It’s a small village. Every extra penny creates a story. Every person talks about the story. Within a short period you have more people asking for your product or service.
In most cases it very easy to see the impact. A single extra bread for every family member is a huge impact. Enough to create a wave among the tightly connected village population. Most people are unaware about the benefits of the product/service you are trying to sell. They ignore you just because they can’t afford. They simply assume it be a piece of gold. Find a way to show the impact. May be find few people whom you think can show the ‘impact figures’ and let them use your product/service for free or just rent it. As I told you one extra piece of bread/roti is a great way to measure impact. Everybody wants one for himself and his family.

When I started digging the web for renewable energies for the world’s poor, I came across lot of innovative ideas. The ideas were just great. Hats off to the brains behind them. They said: “We have created ‘something’ that can help the world’s poor and this system can be built from indigenous materials.”

Now take a close look again. There is a fundamental flaw. Most of these designs come from developed countries. What’s indigenous in US is not indigenous in Indian villages. A car dumped in US is great for your work. But a car never get dumped in India !!!! So to all those innovative engineers out there, keep up the good work, just redo your design and save the world !!!

You have a great new product that you think can change the lives of world’s poorest. You are all set to move to Africa or India and start selling. But few months into the business it gets harder and harder to sell.
Say you have a perfect product that gives almost free electricity for life. You have a great young team. Yet it gets harder day by day. So where are you failing ? Heres the thing,

1. The keyword is ‘convince’. Convince them, prove that your product can truly change there lives.Change just means which can give them extra few dollars or even few cents every day or cure a disease.
2. Make sure you provide them with the a great finance options. Well if you don’t trust your product can pay you back then don’t sell it to them. They will be investing there life savings into your product.
   
3. Make sure they pay you back by giving them ways to use your products productively.
4. Provide a great customer service.
5. Finally make sure they need your product. I mean before you sell water heaters make sure they have access to drinking water. Don’t try to solve the wrong problem at wrong place.