Farmers worried about getting a good price for their crops now have a reason to cheer because the prices from over 3,000 mandis across the country will be available on their handphones. Telecom services provider Tata Teleservices (TTSL), part of the $62-billion Tata group, India?s largest industrial house, has joined hands with Impetus Technologies to launch value added service (VAS) Mandi Bhav for rural market.
Talking to FE, TPS Walia, COO for Punjab and Himachal, TTSL, said, ?This service for Tata Indicom subscribers will help farmers and commodity traders get spot prices from all markets for any commodity of their interest, real time, enabling them to make informed and prudent buy and sell decisions.?
TTSL, along with its subsidiary Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), serves over 32 million customers in more than 7,500 towns across the country.
The new application is available on various platforms like J2ME, BREW, WAP and SMS. The subscription charge will be Rs 30 a month. Walia said, ?We expect this service to contribute up to 40% of the total revenue generated from the value added services in a year.?
Farmers can look forward to information on 500 commodities in about nine languages-Hindi, Marathi and English to begin with. Launching the service in Punjab, the company aims to extend it to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. ?The service will benefit about 50% of our total subscriber base of 12.5 lakh in Punjab,? Walia added.
It is to be noted that companies such as Reuters and Connect are already providing weather forecast, mandi prices and expert advisory services to the farmers.
TTSL plans to reach out to the rural subscribers through panchayats, by holding local level plays, by calling them or by sending personalised messages, participating in rural melas and through the Tata Krishi Sansar centers. As our network penetration in rural India increases, this application will help us increase VAS revenues from agri-based communities and encourage the adoption of mobile phones.?