The Hindu : Business : IFFCO, Bharti Airtel form joint venture

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
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IFFCO, Bharti Airtel form joint venture

Special Correspondent

IFFCO to have majority 50% stake
Competitive calling rates for farmers

— PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

FARM BOOSTER: Sunil Bharti Mittal (left), Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, with U. S. Awasthi, Managing Director, IFFCO, at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Targeting 55 million farmers under its fold, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) on Friday announced a joint venture with telecom major Bharti Airtel to provide a boost to Indian agriculture and rural economy at large.

The joint venture company, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL), will harness the power of telecom to add value to the farm sector and empower the rural farmer by giving him access to vital information, which will enhance his livelihood and quality of life.

In the joint venture, IFFCO will have the majority 50 per cent stake while Airtel and Star Global will have 25 per cent equity each, IKSL Managing Director, Rakesh Kapur, said.

Airtel has created a value added platform to offer free daily voice updates on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts and fertilizer availability to the farmers, Bharti Group Chairman, Sunil Mittal, said here adding that they had already enrolled over 48,000 farmers under this scheme. He said at present 40 per cent of Airtel customers come from rural areas.

By 2010, the rural population was likely to touch 800 million and two-thirds of those would be prospective mobile users, he said, adding that the rural market was worth Rs. 40,000 crore.

‘Sanchar Hat’, the value added platform, will be launched this month in Gujarat while the next roll-out will be in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. At present, this was available in Punjab, Harayna, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, Mr. Kapur said, adding that the scheme would cover the whole country by the end of this fiscal.

The platform will help make available voice advices in all local languages. The Indian farmer will be able to look forward to the benefits of mobile telephony and Internet.

According to Mr. Mittal, Bharti Airtel will become the top rural telecom brand in the next two years. “We feel there is a great opportunity in the telecom sector going to rural India to create new businesses for the cooperatives where farmers are the key stakeholders,” IFFCO Managing Director, U. S. Awasthi, said and added that the revolution being ushered in would benefit rural masses.

Bharti Airtel will offer competitive calling rates at 50 paise per minute for calls between IFFCO members. This is expected to promote community building within the society and rural community at large. Bharti Airtel will also set up towers at sites provided by IFFCO societies to provide quality services to farmers.

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