e-Choupal

‘e-Choupal’ has unshackles the potential of Indian farmer who has been trapped in a vicious cycle of low risk taking ability > low investment > low productivity > weak market orientation > low value addition > low margin > low risk taking ability. This made him and Indian agribusiness sector globally uncompetitive, despite rich & abundant natural resources.

Such a market-led business model can enhance the competitiveness of Indian agriculture and trigger a virtuous cycle of higher productivity, higher incomes, and enlarged capacity for farmer risk management, larger investments and higher quality and productivity.

e-Choupal’ makes use of the physical transmission capabilities of current intermediaries – aggregation, logistics, counter-party risk and bridge financing –while disintermediating them from the chain of information flow and market signals.
With a judicious blend of click & mortar capabilities, village internet kiosks managed by farmers – called sanchalaks – themselves, enable the agricultural community access ready information in their local language on the weather & market prices, disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices & risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs (now with embedded knowledge) and purchase farm produce from the farmers’ doorsteps (decision making is now information-based).
Real-time information and customized knowledge provided by ‘e-Choupal’ enhance the ability of farmers to take decisions and align their farm output with market demand and secure quality & productivity. The aggregation of the demand for farm inputs from individual farmers gives them access to high quality inputs from established and reputed manufacturers at fair prices. As a direct marketing channel, virtually linked to the ‘mandi’ system for price discovery, ‘e-Choupal’ eliminates wasteful intermediation and multiple handling. Thereby it significantly reduces transaction costs.

Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal', has already become the largest initiative among all Internet-based interventions in rural India.'e-Choupal' services today reach out to more than 3.5 million farmers growing a range of crops - soyabean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over 38,000 villages through nearly 6500 kiosks across nine states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerela

This enthusiastic response from farmers has encouraged ITC to plan for the extension of the ‘e-Choupal’ initiative to altogether 15 states across India over the next few years. On the anvil are plans to channelise other services related to micro-credit, health and education through the same 'e-Choupal' infrastructure

ITC's e-Choupal has won numerous awards:
The Stockholm Challenge 2006. This award is for using information technology for the economic development of rural communities.
Innovation for India Award 2006 for ITC e-Choupal in the Social Innovations category for business organizations. The first of its kind in India, based on parameters of number of lives impacted, degree of impact on organization and environment, uniqueness, leverage of resources and whether it was scalable and sustainable, e-Choupal was declared as one of ‘India’s Best Innovations’.
The Development Gateway Award 2005 (previously known as the Petersberg Prize) for the trailblazing e-Choupal initiative. ITC is the first Indian company and the second in the world to win this prestigious award.
The 'Golden Peacock Global Award for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Emerging Economies for 2005'. The Company received this award for its e-Choupal and social and farm forestry initiatives that are impactfully transforming lives and landscapes in rural India.
The Corporate Social Responsibility Award 2004 from The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI) for its e-Choupal initiative. The Award provides impetus to sustainable development and encourages ongoing social responsibility processes within the corporate sector.
The inaugural 'World Business Award', instituted jointly by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the HRH Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This award recognises companies who have made significant efforts to create sustainable livelihood opportunities and enduring wealth in developing countries.
The ‘Enterprise Business Transformation Award’ for Asia Pacific (Apac), instituted by Infosys Technologies and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
PC Quest’s IT Implementation Award in the ‘Best Project’ category.
The Golden Peacock Innovation Award 2004.
The NASSCOM award for 'Best IT User in FMCG' in 2003. The Award is a recognition of ITC's successful integration of its IT usage with its business processes.
The Seagate Intelligent Enterprise of the Year 2003 Award, for the most innovative usage of Information Technology.