Why Corporate, Senior Central Bureaucrats & Centres Political Community have difficulty to communicate & mobilize Rural

India even as it continues to be defining political power-arbitrator for ruling regimes in India
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 26th May 2013

Much of rural India continues to reside in its numerous villages and mofussil towns estimated to be over 600,000 & far away from the hubbub of its Cities. Most of such centers have been historically evolved as silos for independent living where people are expected to produce & live the means supported within the villages. The value of output offered to outsiders and widgets sought from outside is of very little economic value to be of any direct interest to a large corporate. It is however agglomeration of combined output of numerous villages or the combined input sought by numerous villages that are of interest to corporate honchos since the value of such goods being bought & used by villages is now a considerable proportion of the total operating revenues for some industries sectors. In totality, the industry is yet to understand & learn an economically feasible way to engage with the villages, which seems to be a bit difficult given the corporate need to be specialized players in a globalized world while a village needs a wholesome economic engagement to transform the economic value of their output so that they can pay for expanded consumption of outside widgets. The biggest offering of the present village is manpower, which is increasingly moving out of villages for jobs since only unsustainable wages are available within villages for their skills, the agriculture & low tech village industry and craftsmanship being stagnant or loosing demand in the face of industrialized alternatives. The politicos need to engage with the villages as the not-so-economically disenfranchised population holds equal voting rights as combine rural votes outweigh the urban votes for political power. The rural voters clearly have an advantage in deciding the destinies of politicos in India. Instead of encouraging an intellectually engaging economic dialogue with the villages to change their economic fortunes which can put pressure on corporate to change their value creation & operating model, the politicos have engaged in nurturing & extrapolating division of society within these village-silos to maintain a status quo-ist society remaining glued to pre-industrial age beliefs & operating methods of 16th century. It is some new-age businesses in their quest for growth that are trying to discover and unravel the economic potential of the villages primarily as consumers, that are now attempting to change the old equation which is now steadily forcing politicos to change their approach along with the a shift of the mindset of the villagers. It started to happen with Telecom which managed to attract cheap and huge capital basis its low cost reach to village consumers. The value or the lack of value of such consumers was discovered much later and jury is yet to be out as to what shall prevail as the value of each of such consumer is growing. The internet, net shopping, micro-finance, BFSI & consumer goods industry are feeling encouraged to explore this market basis innovations in technology, packaging and costs while a rise in price of agricultural produce signals improvement in buying power for some sections of rural population.

The change in rural Indias mindset is increasingly evident from a change in their engagement with governance structure. The Rural Indias primary engagement with British rulers was through village Zamindars or large land owners and Patwari, the official record-keeper of land ownership records and land tax collector for the government. This was followed with the post office which provided mail service and Rail (& some roads) for goods and people movement. Independent India witnessed government increasing rural service by supply of subsidized fertilizers and canal irrigation for some areas. Subsequently, there have rise of some other services such as supply subsidized diesel, ration-shop for sugar, kerosene (even subsidized cereals) etc. The governments are struggling to offer functioning h Primary health care & school in some villages, roads, potable water & electricity. There has been growth in vehicles & so Road Transport registrar, electricity bill collections and Police-Thanas to control crimes have sprung up. The private sector has chipped in with Mobile phones, news and entertainment channels, Micro-finance/BFSI, Seeds and Drip irrigation inputs etc. The state has also formed APMC to liberate farmers from the strangle hold of exploitive middlemen. The birth & death registration, Identity card and address proof, ration cards bureaucracy at Block/Tehsil offices etc. are some other interventions by which government regulates rural India. Thus the rural junta finds itself surrounded by a slew of central and state institutions that badly need to understand the requirements of rural India in order to transform it into a competitive economic actor in the modern world and not simply fill their rosters with routine work of very little value (but great pain in the arse) to rural populace which is still to appreciate fully the complexity of modern economy and utility of the government institutions. A lot of competitive modern marketing by corporate has unnecessarily propped up prices & fortunes of corporate to the distress of low value buying by rural India. The politicos have generally supported this either openly or tacitly. This is because if a politico attempts to cross line, he is engaged in populist but divisive politics by political supporters of industry which have ensured that the overall political turf remains balanced in favour of the industry. For example, it is possible to sell salt at Rs. 2/ - a kilo, medicines at a fraction of their current MRP, Soap at Rs.100-150/- a KG without any subsidy and there could be several similar goods whose prices have been artificially propped up several times over the costs with the present competitive market structure. A trustworthy & honest distribution system can change the equations which companies have with current & new consumers. However politicos have shown little interest in creation of such distribution system despite of Kendriya Bhandars, Super Bazaars and numerous state employees and tribal welfare shops. The politicos find merit in government buying and Free distribution in some of these goods at the behest of the corporate, since it helps to maintain a skewed market in favour of the corporate especially who are close to the government. This is a considerable source of wealth for both the businesses and the politicos in power. The current power structures have repeatedly thwarted attempts by NGOs and businesses to develop such mechanisms to reach rural India by creating a complex web of regulatory structure which is difficult to negotiate without greasing palms which raises costs several times and reduces trustworthiness. The SME/politicos & corporate have also failed to exploit the latent production potential of rural India which can be profitably deployed for several industry for example: a village can be developed to specialize for Automobile Refabrication or for Furniture and Household goods refabrication, a village can be developed for Garment stitching for production of Pre-fabricated construction materials or for

serving as IT/Telecom BPO or BFSI KPO. Instead such jobs continue to remain in cities, where they can only be sustained by thieved power & other theft & encroachments, increased pollution and unsustainable living condition for labourers; which have been supported by city politicos for sake of votebank. Just as some businesses are waking up to rural India, perhaps its time for some politicos to approach rural India with a changed approach for a new deal by overcoming challenges from resistant sectors. The rural population is now fed up of witnessing its subsidized ration vanish before it reaches them and made available as birdfeed to bird and livestock growers. The honchos then use the ill gotten wealth to manipulate the egg and broiler prices in market to further multiply this wealth so that the chain of interests can remain satisfied. The politico-bureaucratic interests are kept satisfied and to maintain the rural society divided and under suitable able leadership which is now increasing finding its audience more aware and vigilant about their rights and also about the market practices, however the senior politicians are yet to admit the same and change their wayward behavior as it will lead to a break of command and real political change which is dreaded by all and wanted by none.