Fast growing market and micro-irrigation systems in India

Abstract

A good manager must be solution-driven when it comes to establish strategies aimed at providing sustainable growth to his firm. In India where nearly 70% of the population still live in rural areas (World Bank, 2013), thinking about growth strategies targeting this wide –and untapped- market seems indeed an attractive idea. Nevertheless, a market like Rural India, where 72% of people live on less than 2$ a day at 2005 PPP (World Bank, 2013), is not conceived as a potential source of sizeable profits to the company by a large majority of managers. Indeed, Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets like rural India require companies to face and address several challenges such as distribution and financing solutions while entering those markets. Therefore, can the Rural India market be considered as a place to find new and sizeable economic growth opportunities? What are the golden rules to follow while entering such market? To what extent can a company adapt the current BOP best practices to launch successful products and services in Rural India? The first part of this project will try to quantitatively measure the size and growth of the rural Indian market since 1983 thanks to the latest available figures from the World Bank. Then, after emphasizing the golden rules to apply at the BOP, we will try to elaborate solutions in the development of irrigation solutions within this market.