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ITC Group is a large diversified company with interests in tobacco, hospitality industry,

and more recently in consumer goods. The International Business Division (IBD) of the ITC

Group is responsible for procurement, processing, and export of agricultural commodities

including soybean, wheat, shrimp and coffee.

Over the past few years ITC-IBD has created an IT-enabled rural channel (called e-choupal)

that today touches 2500 villages. Until now this channel has primarily been used to drive

enormous efficiency in the procurement of commodities resulting in value creation for both

the company and the farmer. In addition the channel has created enormous social value by

making Internet penetration and global commercial engagement possible in a part of the

world where infrastructural, economic and social limitations had made these impossible

Last year a team of Michigan MBA students worked on a project w/ Prof. C.K. Prahalad to

understand and document this network. A brief write-up based on this report is attached1

.

This year, ITC approached us with a project to assist them in the next stage in the

evolution of the network which will attempt to leverage the procurement infrastructure

towards rural distribution of consumer products. Distribution is currently limited to a few

agri-inputs. ITC-IBD, however, is now exploring expansion of distribution capabilities to

include a broader range of products tailored to rural Indian conditions. The objective is to

reach rural markets with populations of approximately 5000.

The attached document gives a brief overview of the e-choupal system. I have also enclosed

an article that appeared in NY Times. Since most of the audience may not be familiar with

the e-choupal system, I will focus on presenting the highlights of this innovative IT-enabled

channel. The following questions will allow you to focus your thoughts on the e-choupal

system and how we could use to for teaching / research.

1. What...