According to the ITC website eChoupal has become "the largest initiative among all internet-based interventions in rural India". It is also "the world's largest rural digital infrastructure created by a private enterprise". It now covers 4 million farmers in over 40,000 villages in 10 states through 6500 kiosks. Products include soybean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses (legumes) and shrimp.
S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive of ITC Agribusiness, identifies the following characteristics of the model (see first video below):
- Complete end-to-end information technology solution
- Aggregates demand for quality inputs and is also a marketing channel
- It is scalable because it is built on market principles
- It is replicable across different crops and geographies
Major obstacles are primarily infrastructure: power supply, telecom connectivity and bandwidth. So as we have seen in so many cases ... What should government do? is neither a profound or a trick question - government should do what it should have done in the first place - provide basic infrastructure.
Here is a short report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development on this and other examples of ICT-enabled solutions for development.
And two relatively short videos on eChoupal (parts 1 and 2):