• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Bijoy Ghosh

Rural call: (From left) Mr Anirban Ghosh, COO, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Tamil Nadu; Mr Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO; Mr A. Jinnah, State Manager, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd, handing over the first Airtel connection card to an IFFCO member, at a press conference in Chennai on Wednesday. —

Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 6 Bharti Airtel today announced a new scheme – Grameen Mobile Puratchi - to promote mobile telephony in the rural markets of Tamil Nadu. The company has tied up with IFFCO to form a joint venture company – IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd.

According to Mr Rajiv Rajagopal, CEO, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Tamil Nadu, Airtel will offer customised services for the rural market, basically targeting farmers. The product offer would comprise a special calling rate – 50 paise a minute – and a tailor-made VAS (value-added services) platform. This special offer is meant for those who subscribe to the scheme.

Elaborating on this offer, Mr Anirban Ghosh, COO, Mobile Services, Airtel, said apart from a mobile handset with Airtel connection at special calling rate, the bundle offer would include VAS which will provide relevant agricultural information everyday.

For example, all IFFCO members subscribing to this connection can call each other at a special rate of 50 paise per minute. Besides, they will also get five free voice messages on – mandi prices for various farm products, weather report, farming techniques, rural health initiatives and animal husbandry – on a daily basis. “In addition, there will also be special helpline, where a panel of experts will advise the farmer on any specific query,” said Mr Ghosh.

The company, which has 23 per cent share of the mobile telephony market in the country, now through this initiative hopes to tap the rural market where the penetration is less than 15 per cent, said Mr Rajagopal. However, according to him, the rural penetration in the State is much better than most other States in the country. He said, the national average is less than 10 per cent.

IFFCO, a cooperative society promoted in 1967, currently has close to 40,000 societies as members.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Rural Marketing | Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line