The Hindu Business Line : Airtel forms joint venture with IFFCO for rural rollout

Rural penetration: Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal (left), CMD, Bharti Airtel Ltd, with Dr U.S. Awasthi, Managing Director, IFFCO, handing over a mobile phone to a farmer at a press conference in the Capital on Friday. — Kamal Narang

Our Bureau

New Delhi, May 2 In a bid to gain quicker foothold into the rural areas, Bharti Airtel has formed a join venture company with IFFCO, which will offer customised mobile services to a target base of 55 million farmers across the country.

In the new joint venture company called IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL), IFFCO will have the majority 50 per cent stake while Airtel and Star Global will have 25 per cent equity each.

Under this venture, Airtel has created a value added platform to offer free daily voice updates in local languages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts and fertiliser availability to the farmers.

In addition, the farmer will be able to call a dedicated helpline, manned by experts from various fields, to get answers to their specific queries.

Airtel will also allow farmers under the scheme to call each other at 50 paise a minute. Airtel has already enrolled over 48,000 farmers under this scheme.

Explaining the rationale for the move, Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Group, said, “With most of urban areas already covered by mobile operators, 40 per cent of the new subscribers are coming from rural areas. By 2010, the rural population is likely to touch 800 million and two-third of those will be prospective mobile users making it a Rs 40,000-crore market. We want to be the top rural telecom brand in the country.”

Dr U.S.Awasthi, Managing Director, IFFCO, said, “The mobile technology, seems to be a God-Sent opportunity for carrying out our mission. We feel that there is a great opportunity in telecom sector going to rural India to create new business opportunities for the cooperatives where farmers are the key stakeholders. Synergising on IFFCO’s presence in about 98 per cent of villages throughout the country, Airtel would use IKSL as a vehicle to make its mobile telecom services reach the rural masses.”

IKSL will roll out its services in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh in the first phase. The second phase will see the partnership being extended to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The rollout of the second phase is expected to begin by this month.