The Rural Market Scenario

[vikram chawla]

The rural markets offered a huge potential to the business houses because of their enormous spread and rising consumer demands. Around the world, over 4 billion people survived in rural areas that came to more than 60 percent of the total population. In India also, the ratio of rural to urban population was slightly higher than the world's ratio with 70 percent of them living in rural areas. They domiciled in nearly 6,27,000 villages spread over 3.2 million sq. km. This growing affluence along with good monsoon and the increased agriculture output, increased the total disposable income of rural consumers to 58 percent with two-third of middle income households being in the rural market. About 40 percent of the graduates coming out of Indian Universities were from rural areas. As they are eager to earn more and live better, their aspirations are similar to the urban youth. It is predicted by industry analysts that by 2009 – 10, the urban households are projected to grow by 4 percent while rural households are expected to grow by 11 percent. If the rural income rose by 1%, then the buying power would correspondingly increase by about Rs. 10,000 crore. The colour televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners and microwaves have become a household sight in villages and small townships that was long thought of as a luxury and domain of urbanites.

However, rural India had its own set of problems like illiteracy, early childhood marriages, lack of access to birth control measures, poverty etc., that were interdependent on each other. There are also large numbers of daily wage earners and most of the people depended on vagaries of monsoon. Inadequate infrastructure like non-availability of gas supply, frequent power cuts, improper sanitary conditions, inaccessible areas were the other common sight of rural areas.

Some of the important causes for the growth of rural markets are –

* The rise in disposable income of the rural families
* The economic boom
* Timely rains
* Rural population involved themselves in business other than agriculture
* Increase white-collar jobs in nearby towns
* Commercialization of agriculture
* Saturation of the urban markets
* Media penetration in rural areas (particularly satellite channels)
* Globalization
* Economic liberalization
* Revolution in the Information Technology
* Women empowerment
* Improving infrastructure
:SugarwareZ-298:

 

[jitendra05]

The rural markets offered a huge potential to the business houses because of their enormous spread and rising consumer demands. Around the world, over 4 billion people survived in rural areas that came to more than 60 percent of the total population. In India also, the ratio of rural to urban population was slightly higher than the world's ratio with 70 percent of them living in rural areas. They domiciled in nearly 6,27,000 villages spread over 3.2 million sq. km. This growing affluence along with good monsoon and the increased agriculture output, increased the total disposable income of rural consumers to 58 percent with two-third of middle income households being in the rural market. About 40 percent of the graduates coming out of Indian Universities were from rural areas. As they are eager to earn more and live better, their aspirations are similar to the urban youth. It is predicted by industry analysts that by 2009 – 10, the urban households are projected to grow by 4 percent while rural households are expected to grow by 11 percent. If the rural income rose by 1%, then the buying power would correspondingly increase by about Rs. 10,000 crore. The colour televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners and microwaves have become a household sight in villages and small townships that was long thought of as a luxury and domain of urbanites.

However, rural India had its own set of problems like illiteracy, early childhood marriages, lack of access to birth control measures, poverty etc., that were interdependent on each other. There are also large numbers of daily wage earners and most of the people depended on vagaries of monsoon. Inadequate infrastructure like non-availability of gas supply, frequent power cuts, improper sanitary conditions, inaccessible areas were the other common sight of rural areas.

Some of the important causes for the growth of rural markets are –

* The rise in disposable income of the rural families
* The economic boom
* Timely rains
* Rural population involved themselves in business other than agriculture
* Increase white-collar jobs in nearby towns
* Commercialization of agriculture
* Saturation of the urban markets
* Media penetration in rural areas (particularly satellite channels)
* Globalization
* Economic liberalization
* Revolution in the Information Technology
* Women empowerment
* Improving infrastructure
:SugarwareZ-298:

Hey vikram, thanks for sharing the information and i am really impressed and also appreciate your effort and article. Well, i have also got some important information regarding rural market in India and would like to share it with you.