Background

TARAhaat (meaning star market place in Hindi) is a gateway that connects the village user to information, social services, entertainment, and also to various markets, through a network of franchised cyber centres, customized in the language of their choice. TARAhaat covers all three components for rural connectivity: content, access and fulfilment. The TARAhaat.com mother portal, a growing repository of information on issues of sustainable development, furnishes content. Access is provided through a network of franchised local enterprises. Delivery of information, goods and services is provided by local courier services or franchised TARAvans. The pilot phase began in August 2000 in the districts of Bundelkhand, surrounding the city of Jhansi. TARAhaat has been conceived with the view that it has to be mastered and used by people with wide variations in literacy, language, financial liquidity and levels of understanding.

The project is implemented by an NGO called Development Alternatives, which has a staff of more than 400. It is a national not-for-profit organization working for 18 years on issues of sustainable development (equity, efficient management of resources, environmental conservation and empowerment) in the field, creating sustainable livelihoods (village industry, reforestation, water retaining structures, low energy buildings and materials, eco-friendly products and services). The other partners in the project are: Indira Gandhi National Open University, National Youth Cooperatives, Hindustan Lever Limited, Development Gateway (World Bank), Global System for Sustainable Development (MIT), Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd, People First, DESI Power Ltd, Excelsior Capital Management and James Martin & Co.

Objectives and Goals

The objective of the portal is to enable a flow of knowledge services and products to the vast rural base of users and consumers. These objectives – in particular, changing attitudes, informing the people, demolishing myths, developing human capacity, creating support groups, etc. – can be achieved by using IT as a tool for social development and empowerment.

Planning

TARAhaat was initiated by the NGO Development Alternatives as a business model in which different project partners got together to provide server, software and network support and private entrepreneurs took up rural kiosks as franchisees. The project was planned in such a fashion that services provided in TARAhaat.com will motivate rural entrepreneurs to open up rural kiosks on a franchisee basis and they will provide various services to the villagers on a user-charge basis.

Services Provided

TARAhaat is a company dedicated to continuous innovation and product development. It creates its products and services in response to the needs of its customers. Its current products are focused on education, communication and e-governance. Its educational products, developed by TARAhaat's educational wing Taragyan, range from those that equip individuals with the skills needed to succeed in the job markets to those that enable them to compete in the global market place.

Content such as law, governance, health and livelihoods are already available, and additional content is added every day. Commodities market information, listings of the local yellow pages, and information about products are also available. One of the largest revenue streams of TARAhaat is envisaged to be e-education. The portal has begun delivering a basic computing course that combines classroom teaching and hands-on computer practice (offline and online).

The subsidiary units in the portal include:

• TARAdhaba - provides the villager connectivity and access to a new world.
• TARAbazaar - provides access to products and services needed by rural households, farmers, and industries.
• TARAvan - delivers goods ordered.
• TARAdak - connects the rural families to the daughter married far off and to the son posted on the front.
• TARAguru - provides mentoring and consultancy to village-based mini-enterprises.
• TARAscouts/TARAreporter - collects relevant information for the portal.
• TARAvendor -runs the store that will cater to products available at Tarabazaar.
• TARAcard - enables the villager to order goods and services on credit.

Target Group and Intended Beneficiaries

The target group is communities residing in rural areas of central India. The intended beneficiaries are rural folks and students.

Institutional Arrangements

TARAhaat.com is a portal on the World Wide Web, which is centrally managed by Development Alternatives. The project implementation agency reports about the performance to the project partners. Rural kiosks managed by entrepreneurs as franchisees are monitored and supervised by a team of project mangers and field officers.

Technologies

As a website on the Internet, TARAhaat is, of course, available to any user on the Web. During the pre-rollout pilot phase, it was accessed through 20-odd TARAkendras by a growing number of users in two rural regions of the country: Bhatinda (amongst the richest regions) and Bundelkhand (amongst the poorest). TARAhaat brings the Internet and its benefits directly into the lives of rural poor in the remotest villages of India. It is a unique combination of a mother portal nurturing several vertical and horizontal portals within it, together with franchised cyber kiosks and delivery vans. TARAhaat combines a mother portal, TARAhaat.com, supported by franchised networks of village cyber cafés and delivery systems to provide a full range of services its clients.

Primary Access Points

Primary access points are the rural kiosks established in the rural areas and owned by private entrepreneurs as franchisee.

Capacity Building

TARAhaat provides training and management support to its network of franchised TARAkendras to enable them to provide standardized services. It also acts as a central provider of the products and services needed, adapting them to meet the local needs of each region.

Constraints and Implementation Challenges

The project has been launched as an NGO to initiate a sustainable network with the support of the project partners and private entrepreneurs. The project faced difficulties in managing most of the services envisaged, as the government departments did not support the NGO initiative as originally expected. Some of the services provided in the network did not motivate villagers to come to the kiosks as they were considered not much use. The returns from the rural kiosks were miniscule compared to the investments made by the private entrepreneurs. As around a dozen project partners were engaged in funding, the project faced the problem of too many investments in superfluous activities. The project also depended heavily on e-commerce activities, which could not be realized in the project area.

Project Outcomes

TARAhaat has begun to tap opportunities to mobilize hidden or underutilized assets and to generate new ones. The revenue streams of TARAhaat provide for profit generation at each step of the supply chain, serving to further cement all its networks together. For the family, this portal provides a window to the world, enabling them to connect locally to international information, health, matrimonial, and mailing services. The farmers benefit through weather forecasting, procurement services, and sales negotiations. The younger generation benefits through career counseling, entertainment, and educational and career opportunities.

While the project provides a menu of services that is similar, in many ways, to other rural ICT projects, its current business model requires a considerable influx of capital before it can become self-sufficient.

Key Lessons Learnt

TARAhaat revealed a unique prospect for creating a financially viable rural network but it has failed to deliver the goods and has been unable to attain all its objectives and goals. The project relies on a combination of the mother portal nurturing several vertical and horizontal portals within it, together with franchised kiosks and delivery vans. The software used in the project is very user-friendly and has been professionally created. But poor backup arrangements and support system has made it nearly useless. A key lesson learnt is, just like in the case of dot com firms, backward integration is important in rural ICT networks too.

Sustainability

TARAhaat was conceived as a business model. Twelve different private partners invested to start rural-based services from privately owned kiosks. The returns expected from privately owned kiosks did not materialize. The emphasis remained on preparation of the software and less importance was given to the services provided by the project. In the first two years of the project, the losses incurred on kiosks forced the owners to shut down the kiosks. The project has failed in fulfilling its business model objectives.

Replication and Scaling Up

TARAhaat was launched as a pilot in late 2000 in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In 2001, TARAhaat expanded its operations into Punjab. Presently, TARAhaat has 22 centres. The financial structure of TARAhaat breaks new ground by providing simultaneously for equity shareholder value and societal stakeholder wealth in a manner that maximizes both.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the kiosks should not be expanded in other regions of rural India unless the present setup is made financially viable for the project partners and private entrepreneurs. It is also recommended functional relationships be built with government departments through which numerous e-government services can be delivered to the masses. e-Education and e-health services in TARAhaat .com should be outsourced to other agencies working in this field. The cost of creating rural kiosks can further be curtailed so that their financial feasibility improves. More concrete steps are required to promote ICT related services in rural areas. TARAhaat.com can also try to include more computer education in rural areas through its kiosks. It is recommended that more community practitioners than technologist be employed in the project.

Human Interest Stories

Speed of Technology and Business

Lalitpur is the largest commodities trading centre of Bundelkhand and attracts itinerant traders daily from as far away as 150 km. They could not believe that they would get speedy information about their business at this (or any) TARAkendra. Ashok Kumar, a commodities trader from Delhi, said, “My father earlier made a profit margin of 20 percent because he had a car. Nobody had the information at the speed that he did. Long-distance call kiosks and, recently, roaming mobile phones, have changed all that so that margins are now below 5 percent. With the farmer having market knowledge, business will get even more competitive.” He is transforming his business to real estate and rural cold storage facilities.

Computers to the Rescue

Veerpal Kaur and Gurubhakt Singh, who had not seen a computer till a few months ago, are learning to operate a computer at their village TARAkendra and enjoying every bit of it. They are familiar with the basics of computers --DOS, MSPaint -- and can also surf  the Net. The story, echoed by many youths in the villages of Bathinda and Bundelkhand, are especially significant as both are physically handicapped and they could not have travelled to town to learn computing. Their self-esteem is regenerated enough for these two high-school dropouts to seek higher education leading to a career in IT.

Contact Information

Rakesh Khanna
TARAhaat Information and Marketing Services Ltd
B-32, Tara Crescent
Qutab Institutional Area
New Delhi - 110 016, India
Email: tarahaat@sdalt.ernet.in

Website

http://www.tarahaat.com