Need help on rural marketing project

priyankappd

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
With market liberalisation, increasing consumerism and the entry of more foreign players, Indian markets are seeing revolutionary changes. The Indian consumer is rapidly evolving and is spoiled for choice by a host of international brands selling their products at competitive prices.

According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), India's middle class will swell by more than ten times—from its current size of 50 million, to 583 million people—by 2025. And over 23 million Indians—more than the present population of Australia today—will be counted as billionaires. By 2025, India will also become the 5th largest consumer market, surpassing Germany, moving up from the 12th position it occupied in 2007.

India has been ranked as the most attractive nation for retail investment among 30 emerging markets by the US-based global management consulting firm A T Kearney in its entity's Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) 2009.

Rural Market: The Next Big Opportunity

Rural India makes up 40 per cent of India’s US$ 280 billion retail market and offers alluring opportunities for retailers. The rural market offers great untapped potential. In 2008, the rural market grew at an impressive rate of 25 per cent compared to the 7-10 per cent growth rate of the urban consumer retail market. Further, according to international consultancy firm Celent, the rural market will grow to a potential of US$ 1.9 billion by 2015 from the current US$ 487 million.

Today, the rural market accounts for a hefty share in most market segments—55 per cent of LIC policies, 70 per cent of toilet soaps, 50 per cent of television, fans, bicycles, tea and wrist watches.

Also rural India is less affected by the global slowdown. Consequently, an increasing number of marketers are targeting it across fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), cars, two-wheelers and consumer durables.

The US$ 18.58 billion FMCG industry is expected to register a 15 per cent growth in 2010 as compared to the previous year. Further, the industry is likely to witness a spate of acquisitions and mergers in the year 2010. Players like Wipro will continue to tap the rural market in the year 2010.

Most FMCG companies are now working on increasing their distribution in smaller towns and focussing on marketing and operations programme for semi-urban and rural markets.

For instance, Godrej Consumer Products intends to increase revenue from rural areas from 38 per cent to 55 per cent in the next three years by increasing its distribution network substantially. The products will reach out to 50,000 villages in the next couple of years from the present 18,000 villages while the number of towns covered will double from 3,300 to almost 6,500 in a year.

Similarly, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is not only launching smaller packs at lower prices but is also developing products at appropriate price points for rural consumers

Brand Extensions

In a bid to garner higher market share and sustain long-term growth, FMCG companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo, Dabur, Marico and Godrej have adopted a brand extension strategy amid negative factors such as high inflation and the global financial crisis.

According to marketing research company IMRB, the FMCG companies launched 251 products (223 variants and 28 brands) in calendar year 2007 as against 191 (173 variants and 18 brands) in 2006. The industry pegs the number of variants and extensions launched in 2008 to be in line with 2007.

Nestle launched a record number of variants in 2008—from its Maggi Cuppa Mania, Maggi Pichkoo to Maggi Bhuna Masala. Dabur too unveiled a pudina variant of its popular Hajmola brand apart from extending its Gulabari skin-care range.

In terms of categories, brand extensions in personal-care, household-care and processed foods drove growth in the FMCG sector.

Media and Communication Channels

Word-of-mouth remains the most important influence in the buying decision of the Indian consumer—a fact confirmed by 85 per cent users who participated in a recent global Nielsen Internet survey. Among the top ten countries that attach maximum importance to the recommendation of the fellow consumer, India ranks fourth while Hong Kong tops the list.

Newspaper (77 per cent) is the second most trustworthy advertising medium while television ranks fifth at 65 per cent. For the Internet users, online opinions are at the third position with a 73 per cent vote.

There is an 82 per cent rise in the number of brands advertised on television during 2008 compared to 1999, according to a new survey by AdEx India, a division of Tam Media Research. Print ad volumes has seen rise of 2.2 times between 1999 and 2008.

According to Radio Audience Measurement data, 49 per cent listeners access radio from their mobile phones. Fostered by its increasing popularity, private FM is especially emerging as a preferred communication channel for the marketers in India.

Rising interest in social networking in 2008 has made brands think seriously about online advertising. According to a FICCI-PwC report, it is expected to touch US$ 212.91 million in 2011 from the current US$ 58.1 million.

Companies such as HUL, Tata Tea, Titan, HDFC among others are using peer-to-peer network on sites like Facebook or Twitter to spread product reviews and create a buzz around the brand.

The mobile digital advertising market is supposed to be the next big thing with analysts pegging the year-on-year growth to be 55 per cent. Moreover, analysts say 22 per cent companies are expected to increase their mobile advertising spend in FY 2009 as compared to 15 per cent companies that did so in FY 2008. Telecom and FMCG sectors are investing between US$ 4.2 million and US$ 7.3 million on this medium to communicate their product messages in rural areas.

Digital advertising space grew by about 74 per cent in 2008-09 to reach US$ 141.6 million and is expected to be US$ 1.12 billion by 2011. Of US$ 141.6 million, wireless application protocol based advertising was about 30 per cent of the mobile ad market, while opt-in SMS contributed 10 per cent of the market share.

Packaging and Design

Both packaging and design are increasingly being seen as potent marketing tools for product differentiation and communication with the consumer. Convenient packaging assures consumers of the product quality and helps boost sales. The recent Asian Paints campaign marks a new trend among advertisers, who are now looking to attract consumers with try-vertising—or mainstream advertising that encourages them to try the sample or smaller-sized product—while also building brand image.

E-Commerce

The Indian e-commerce market is valued at Rs 9,210 crore (US$ 1.97 billion), growing at 30 per cent, while the B2C non-travel market is valued at Rs 2,210 crore (US$ 473.54 million), growing at 40 per cent. A recent study on the distribution of the global online population by 2012 noted that India will contribute 6 per cent or 109 million users, out of the 812 million in all of Asia.

Exchange rate used: 1 USD = 46.29 INR (as on January 2010)
 

priyankappd

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
The Indian growth story is now spreading itself to India's hinterlands. Rural India, home to about two-thirds of the country’s 1 billion population, is not just witnessing an increase in its income but also in consumption and production.

The union budget for 2009-10 hiked the allocation for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to US$ 8.03 billion, giving a further boost to the rural economy.

This is in addition to the farmer loan waiver of US$ 13.86 billion and the ambitious Bharat Nirman Programme with an outlay of US$ 34.84 billion for improving rural infrastructure.

Additionally, the rural economy has not been impacted by the global economic slowdown, according to a recent study by the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI).

The study found that the rural and small town economy which accounts for 60 per cent of India's income has remained insulated from the economic slowdown. Moreover, rural incomes are on the rise driven largely due to continuous growth in agriculture for four consecutive years.

Moreover, the rural consumer market, which grew 25 per cent in 2008, is expected to reach US$ 425 billion in 2010-11 with 720-790 million customers, according to a white paper prepared by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-Technopak. That will be double the 2004-05 market size of US$ 220 billion.

According to the Technopak study, rural demand for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharma, auto and consumer durables industries is estimated to match sales generated in urban areas soon. While durables market shrunk in urban India, rural market is seeing a 15 per cent growth rate. FMCG sales are up 23 per cent and telecom is growing at 13 per cent.

FMCG

Rural consumers spend around 13 per cent of their income, the second highest after food (35 per cent), on FMCG, as per a RMAI study.

The FMCG industry in India was worth around US$ 16.03 billion in August 2008 and the rural market accounted for a robust 57 per cent share of the total FMCG market in India.

The FMCG sector saw rural markets post 20 per cent growth, ahead of the 17-18 per cent growth from urban India, aided by three years of good monsoon, higher prices of farm produce and farm-loan waiver.

Further, rural India’s demand for personal care products grew faster than in urban areas during April-September 2009, as per the latest numbers released by market researcher AC Nielsen.

Most FMCG companies are now working on increasing their distribution in smaller towns and focussing on marketing and operations programme for semi-urban and rural markets.

Retail

The rural retail market is currently estimated at US$ 112 billion, or around 40 per cent of the US$ 280 billion retail market. Major domestic retailers like AV Birla, ITC, Godrej, Reliance and many others have already set up farm linkages. Hariyali Kisan Bazaars (DCM) and Aadhars (Pantaloon-Godrej JV), Choupal Sagars (ITC), Kisan Sansars (Tata), Reliance Fresh, Project Shakti (Hindustan Unilever) and Naya Yug Bazaar are established rural retail hubs.

Pharmaceuticals

According to a report by McKinsey, the rural and tier-II pharma market will account for almost half of the growth till 2015. The tier-II market will grow to 44 per cent by 2015, amounting to US$ 8.8 billion.

This growth will be further augmented with the government increasing the allocation under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) by US$ 424.3 million over interim budget estimate 2009-10 of US$ 2.49 billion.

Elder Pharmaceuticals is increasing its focus on the rural market. The company that largely makes active pharmaceutical ingredients, plans to increase its sales by 8-9 per cent mainly from rural areas and has allocated US$ 8.26 million to strengthen the sales force for this segment.

French company Aventis Pharma has also launched a rural market division with 10 products and a sales team of 300 people as it eyes a bigger share of the fast growing Indian rural market. It expects to get a 1.5-2 per cent share of the rural market in the next five years.

Telecommunication

A Gartner forecast revealed that Indian cellular services revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4 per cent to touch US$ 25.6 billion by 2011, with most of the growth coming from rural markets. Also, a joint CII and Ernst & Young report reveals that of the next 250 million Indian wireless users, approximately 100 million (40 per cent) are likely to be from rural areas, and by 2012, rural users will account for over 60 per cent of the total telecom subscriber base in India.

In a bid to acquire rural subscribers, most Indian telecom operators have started investing in infrastructure to roll out their services in these areas. Realising this as a huge potential, small Indian handset manufacturing companies, including Micromax, Intex Technologies and Karbonn, have lined up a marketing spent of around US$ 21.02 million for the financial year 2009-10.

Automobiles

For the auto industry, semi-urban and rural markets contribute close to 40 per cent of sales, led by demand for two-wheelers, entry-level cars and tractors.

Significantly, car sales grew 8.3 per cent in June 2009, aided by rising demand in semi-urban and rural markets.

Mahindra & Mahindra is bullish on the rural and semi-urban markets, with its utility vehicle, Scorpio clocking 60-65 per cent sales from the rural markets as against 20 per cent earlier. TVS Motor also registered around 50 per cent of its sales from the rural and semi-urban markets.

Consumer Durables

A survey carried out by RMAI has revealed that 59 per cent of durables sales come from rural markets.

Presently, around 50 per cent of sales in the US$ 5.14 billion consumer electronics industry come from the urban markets, 30 per cent from tier-II and -III towns and balance 20 per cent from rural India.

Many leading consumer durable companies are now increasing their presence in rural India. Recently, LG has set up 45 area offices and 59 rural and remote-area offices. Moreover, it has outlined plans to invest around US$ 40 million towards development of entry-level products targeted at rural markets.

Samsung has also rolled out its 'Dream Home' road show which was to visit 48 small towns in 100 days in an effort to increase brand awareness of its products. Samsung expects that its rural revenues would increase to US$ 287.7 million in 2009 from US$ 164.4 million last year. The company also plans to expand its sales channel by 25-30 per cent in rural India.

Whirlpool, is eyeing rural markets in India for its next phase of growth. The company is set to tap markets with a population between 100,000 and 500,000 in the first phase, and in the next phase, will look at expanding the base in villages with a population of 50,000.

Road Ahead

The development of rural infrastructure is an important priority for the government and out of the total projected investment of US$ 283.83 billion to be incurred by the centre and the states in the Eleventh Plan, US$ 80.82 billion would be spent entirely towards improvement of rural infrastructure.

According to international consultancy firm Celent, rural markets in India will grow to a potential of US$ 1.9 billion by 2015 from the current US$ 487 million. Rural markets are growing at double the pace of urban markets and for many product categories, rural markets account for well over 60 per cent of the national demand
 

gargi.n

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
hi this is a ppt project on rural marketing hope this is helpful to u.
 

Attachments

  • Session I - Rural Marketing.ppt
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tanmay_2002

New member
Market linkages for rural products: There are, broadly speaking, three ways in which they can be connected to the markets. They can do it on their own — through cooperatives. Or, the state can do it for them — through its procurement engines. Stages one and two, in a manner of speaking. Today, developmental thinking on market linkages has reached stage three — linkages through companies or industries. Rural markets are regarded as organizations for marketing of non-farm products in a traditional setting. Developing rural markets is one of the major concerns of government and Non-governmental organization in India. This subject has attracted large number of research studies over past. Among which noted contributions are made by Rajagopal, PhD, FRSA; faculty members of Institute of Rural Management Anand, IIMA and others.

Across India, previous attempts to create such linkages have floundered. Take Assam and other eastern states itself. Around the Eighties, the state government here decided that cooperatives were a great way to consolidate its political base. Loans went to the undeserving. Debts were written off. The institutions slowly got corrupted. As for the linkages provided by the state, these offer uncertain sustainability. Given this context, one can conclude that profit-oriented industry linkages are a more sustainable, more scalable alternative. In this scenario, companies can use the social infrastructure (the self help group et al.) as an alternative procurement and distribution chain and vise versa.

Industry’s role in building market linkages: To make an effective market linkage, industries have to play as an engine of market, which can generate a brand image of the rural products. This initiative of industries will also strengthen the backward and forward linkages of the rural market, besides, accelerating the innovations of the rural products. Definitely, this strategy will also give a remarkable dividend to the industries & profit making companies. In micro level, it is observed that to create a sustainable market linkage for rural products, industries can develop an ecosystem of Self Help Groups (SHGs) by involving the local communities through village level empowerment. It is nothing less than the next phase in the democratization of commerce. Under this paradigm, industries can create a network with viable marketing channels covering all the linkages from villages to the global level. This architecture provides the right value of procurement through the village procurement centres and rural entrepreneurs can sell their products faster with better price realization. This model is also capable of generating a consumer business and an output business in a win-win scenario, where rural producers can get a wide marketing horizon and the industries shall get a new, lower cost ‘salesforce’. Another role of industries in building market linkages for agro-based rural products can be the ‘dynamic contract farming’. If a conventional industry can kick off a contract farming business, and export niche horticulture crops like cucumbers, the small and marginal farmers who could grow these small cucumbers would make Rs 30,000 in profits in a year. KRBL, one of India’s largest basmati exporters, has contract farming agreements with 24,000 farmers; Global Green buys from about 12,000 farmers. Moreover, in the current era of information technology, industry and private companies can also creatively use ICT for building sustainable marketing linkages. This approach creatively leverages information technology (IT) to set up a meta-market in favour of small and poor producers/rural entrepreneurs, who would otherwise continue to operate and transact in 'unevolved' markets where the rent-seeking vested interests exploit their disadvantaged position. ITC e Choupal is the best example in this context. Through creative use of Information Technology, ITC eChoupal has been creating sustainable stakeholder value by reorganizing the agri-commodity supply chains simultaneously improving the competitiveness of small farmer agriculture and enhancing rural prosperity. eChoupal also sidesteps the value-sapping problems caused by fragmentation, dispersion, heterogeneity and weak infrastructure. ITC takes on the role of a Network Orchestrator in this meta-market by stitching together an end-to-end solution. It eliminated the traditional 'mandi' system which involved lot of middlemen as a result of which farmers failed to get the right value for their produce. The solution simultaneously addresses the viability concerns of the participating companies by virtually aggregating the demand from thousands of small farmers, and the value-for-money concerns of the farmers by creating competition among the companies in each leg of the value chain.

Scope & opportunities: The basic scope of this novel initiative will be the mutual benefits of the rural entrepreneurs and industries. The entrepreneurs – primary beneficiaries, SHGs – bridge with the community, participating companies/industries and rural consumers have befitted through a robust commercial relationship. These models of marketing linkages demonstrate a large corporation which can play a major role in reorganizing markets and increasing the efficiency of a rural product generation system. While doing so it will benefit farmers and rural communities as well as shareholders. Moreover, the key role of information technology—provided and maintained by the industry/company for building linkages, and used by local farmers—brings about transparency, increased access to information, and rural transformation. Besides, this strategy of market linkage, addresses the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs due to institution voids, numerous intermediaries and infrastructure bottlenecks. Moreover, the prime scope of this model is the creation of opportunities for the rural entrepreneurs for product differentiation and innovation by offering them choices. Because of this sustainable market linkages, rural producers can participate in the benefits of globalization and will also develop their capacity to maintain global quality standard. Nonetheless, it creates new stakeholders for the industry sector. And subsequently, they become part of the firms’ core businesses. The involvement of the private /industry sector at the rural product and market development can also provide opportunities for the development of new services and values to the customers, which will find application in the developed markets. It will be worth mentioning that building a sustainable market linkage through industry’s intervention will also empower the rural mass (producers, farmers & entrepreneurs) to cope with socio-economic problems in the rural society and will ensure economic self –reliance.

Challenges: There are significant challenges to the entire process the most important being the capacity building of the rural entrepreneurs. For decades, the entrepreneurs associated with very conventional/traditional knowledge of business, humiliation with government, so they are likely to look at these initiatives with skepticism. Only consistent performance can convince the skeptics. Therefore, the industries must play a catalytic role to cope with this challenge and should also train the entrepreneurs to develop their managerial and IT skills. On the other hand, the products of the existing and popular brand also stand as threat to the rural products. These global giants (brand) may try to suppress the rural products in the markets with its communication hype. Therefore, developing alternative and additional market linkages for these products is an absolute necessity. Moreover, the low volumes of rural products, high operating cots, high attrition, and absence of local know how and relationships may also create problem in the process. Henceforth, it is essential to make a way out to cope with these odds.

Conclusion: These issues gain added complexity under globalization, where markets are characterized by extreme competition and volatility. While rural products has been perceived traditionally as catering to the local market, or at best, to a wider national market through limited formal channels, the reality of globalization since the 1990s introduced a new dimension to the market for such products. The issue of rural product generation through industrialization, therefore, needs to be viewed from a new angle and on far more scientific lines. The core of a scientific approach is to understand the market opportunities for rural products along with the country's development priorities and to chalk out a strategy where rural industries have an important role to play. While rural products are forced to increasingly become part of global supply chains, these products need to adapt themselves, not only according to the changing tastes of the national market, but also according to changes in tastes in the international market. Therefore, a process is essential to explore the market linkages and capacity building for SHGs through a bottom up approach and continuous dialogue with stakeholders of rural enterprise. This process should ensure the participation of rural people as consumers and producers in the globalization mechanism, with better livelihoods and global access to markets. The real challenge of building a sustainable market linkage starts here.
 

tanmay_2002

New member
Market linkages for rural products: There are, broadly speaking, three ways in which they can be connected to the markets. They can do it on their own — through cooperatives. Or, the state can do it for them — through its procurement engines. Stages one and two, in a manner of speaking. Today, developmental thinking on market linkages has reached stage three — linkages through companies or industries. Rural markets are regarded as organizations for marketing of non-farm products in a traditional setting. Developing rural markets is one of the major concerns of government and Non-governmental organization in India. This subject has attracted large number of research studies over past. Among which noted contributions are made by Rajagopal, PhD, FRSA; faculty members of Institute of Rural Management Anand, IIMA and others.

Across India, previous attempts to create such linkages have floundered. Take Assam and other eastern states itself. Around the Eighties, the state government here decided that cooperatives were a great way to consolidate its political base. Loans went to the undeserving. Debts were written off. The institutions slowly got corrupted. As for the linkages provided by the state, these offer uncertain sustainability. Given this context, one can conclude that profit-oriented industry linkages are a more sustainable, more scalable alternative. In this scenario, companies can use the social infrastructure (the self help group et al.) as an alternative procurement and distribution chain and vise versa.

Industry’s role in building market linkages: To make an effective market linkage, industries have to play as an engine of market, which can generate a brand image of the rural products. This initiative of industries will also strengthen the backward and forward linkages of the rural market, besides, accelerating the innovations of the rural products. Definitely, this strategy will also give a remarkable dividend to the industries & profit making companies. In micro level, it is observed that to create a sustainable market linkage for rural products, industries can develop an ecosystem of Self Help Groups (SHGs) by involving the local communities through village level empowerment. It is nothing less than the next phase in the democratization of commerce. Under this paradigm, industries can create a network with viable marketing channels covering all the linkages from villages to the global level. This architecture provides the right value of procurement through the village procurement centres and rural entrepreneurs can sell their products faster with better price realization. This model is also capable of generating a consumer business and an output business in a win-win scenario, where rural producers can get a wide marketing horizon and the industries shall get a new, lower cost ‘salesforce’. Another role of industries in building market linkages for agro-based rural products can be the ‘dynamic contract farming’. If a conventional industry can kick off a contract farming business, and export niche horticulture crops like cucumbers, the small and marginal farmers who could grow these small cucumbers would make Rs 30,000 in profits in a year. KRBL, one of India’s largest basmati exporters, has contract farming agreements with 24,000 farmers; Global Green buys from about 12,000 farmers. Moreover, in the current era of information technology, industry and private companies can also creatively use ICT for building sustainable marketing linkages. This approach creatively leverages information technology (IT) to set up a meta-market in favour of small and poor producers/rural entrepreneurs, who would otherwise continue to operate and transact in 'unevolved' markets where the rent-seeking vested interests exploit their disadvantaged position. ITC e Choupal is the best example in this context. Through creative use of Information Technology, ITC eChoupal has been creating sustainable stakeholder value by reorganizing the agri-commodity supply chains simultaneously improving the competitiveness of small farmer agriculture and enhancing rural prosperity. eChoupal also sidesteps the value-sapping problems caused by fragmentation, dispersion, heterogeneity and weak infrastructure. ITC takes on the role of a Network Orchestrator in this meta-market by stitching together an end-to-end solution. It eliminated the traditional 'mandi' system which involved lot of middlemen as a result of which farmers failed to get the right value for their produce. The solution simultaneously addresses the viability concerns of the participating companies by virtually aggregating the demand from thousands of small farmers, and the value-for-money concerns of the farmers by creating competition among the companies in each leg of the value chain.

Scope & opportunities: The basic scope of this novel initiative will be the mutual benefits of the rural entrepreneurs and industries. The entrepreneurs – primary beneficiaries, SHGs – bridge with the community, participating companies/industries and rural consumers have befitted through a robust commercial relationship. These models of marketing linkages demonstrate a large corporation which can play a major role in reorganizing markets and increasing the efficiency of a rural product generation system. While doing so it will benefit farmers and rural communities as well as shareholders. Moreover, the key role of information technology—provided and maintained by the industry/company for building linkages, and used by local farmers—brings about transparency, increased access to information, and rural transformation. Besides, this strategy of market linkage, addresses the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs due to institution voids, numerous intermediaries and infrastructure bottlenecks. Moreover, the prime scope of this model is the creation of opportunities for the rural entrepreneurs for product differentiation and innovation by offering them choices. Because of this sustainable market linkages, rural producers can participate in the benefits of globalization and will also develop their capacity to maintain global quality standard. Nonetheless, it creates new stakeholders for the industry sector. And subsequently, they become part of the firms’ core businesses. The involvement of the private /industry sector at the rural product and market development can also provide opportunities for the development of new services and values to the customers, which will find application in the developed markets. It will be worth mentioning that building a sustainable market linkage through industry’s intervention will also empower the rural mass (producers, farmers & entrepreneurs) to cope with socio-economic problems in the rural society and will ensure economic self –reliance.

Challenges: There are significant challenges to the entire process the most important being the capacity building of the rural entrepreneurs. For decades, the entrepreneurs associated with very conventional/traditional knowledge of business, humiliation with government, so they are likely to look at these initiatives with skepticism. Only consistent performance can convince the skeptics. Therefore, the industries must play a catalytic role to cope with this challenge and should also train the entrepreneurs to develop their managerial and IT skills. On the other hand, the products of the existing and popular brand also stand as threat to the rural products. These global giants (brand) may try to suppress the rural products in the markets with its communication hype. Therefore, developing alternative and additional market linkages for these products is an absolute necessity. Moreover, the low volumes of rural products, high operating cots, high attrition, and absence of local know how and relationships may also create problem in the process. Henceforth, it is essential to make a way out to cope with these odds.

Conclusion: These issues gain added complexity under globalization, where markets are characterized by extreme competition and volatility. While rural products has been perceived traditionally as catering to the local market, or at best, to a wider national market through limited formal channels, the reality of globalization since the 1990s introduced a new dimension to the market for such products. The issue of rural product generation through industrialization, therefore, needs to be viewed from a new angle and on far more scientific lines. The core of a scientific approach is to understand the market opportunities for rural products along with the country's development priorities and to chalk out a strategy where rural industries have an important role to play. While rural products are forced to increasingly become part of global supply chains, these products need to adapt themselves, not only according to the changing tastes of the national market, but also according to changes in tastes in the international market. Therefore, a process is essential to explore the market linkages and capacity building for SHGs through a bottom up approach and continuous dialogue with stakeholders of rural enterprise. This process should ensure the participation of rural people as consumers and producers in the globalization mechanism, with better livelihoods and global access to markets. The real challenge of building a sustainable market linkage starts here.
 
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