Analyzing Strategy Execution at BOP: Drishtee’scase

Analyzing Strategy Execution at BOP: Drishtee’s case

Prepared for:

Prof. Sanjeeva Shivesh Faculty Strategy Area, MDI

By:

Anshul Gupta

Hemanth Chachadi Laxmi G

Saurabh Jha Pallavi Madan Vishwas Kini Nikhil Gupta

August 2010

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE GURGAON

Analyzing Strategy Execution at BOP: Drishtee’s case | Group-1, Section-B 2

CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgement 3

Executive Summery 4

1. Introduction 5

1.1 Opportunities at BOP 5

1.2 Innovation Sandbox 6

2. Drishtee: Leveraging BOP opportunity 8

2.1 About Drishtee 8

2.2 Drishtee's Strategy 9

2.3 Strategy Implementation 19

3. Conclusions 28

4. References 29

5. Exhibits 30


Acknowledgement

We take this opportunity to thank Prof. Sanjeev Shrivesh for providing guidance to our group

towards the successful completion of our project.


Executive Summary

Intense competition along with saturating demand in the western world has resulted in Red

Ocean in almost all industries. The number of companies serving the same market has been

ever increasing. The dynamics of the business world has made companies to look for newer

markets or create a blue ocean i.e. create a completely new market. Though having a blue

ocean strategy seems to be the best option, it is very difficult to successfully create one.

A majority of the world’s population lives in poverty; while the exact numbers are debatable

some estimates say four billion people worldwide live on less than two dollars a day. Industry

has hardly looked at this large population as a market seriously, Investments to offer

products/services to these market has been minimal compared to the focus they have on the

western market. Famous marketing Gurus C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart, both Aspen Institute

Faculty Pioneer Award recipients, have advocated companies not to ignore these traditionally

overlooked people, collectively dubbed the “Bottom of the Pyramid,” because of their

considerable combined purchasing power. Thus, if companies are innovative enough to create

or tailor their products to the economic realities and life needs of these people, a significant

profit can be won. At the same time, this group’s entry into the market would hopefully better

their quality of life and aid in regional economic development.

The objective of our project is to study one company “Drishtee” which has adopted Bottom of

Pyramid strategy in India. We have tried to analyze and understand the strategy followed by

drishtee, focusing more on its successful implantation. Drishtee started modestly in the year

2000 in Dhar (Madhya Pradesh, India), and it has expanded itself into several other states in the

northern and eastern part of the country.


1. Introduction 1.1 Opportunities at BOP

Global poverty exists today at a startling scale; while the exact numbers are debated, some

estimate that four billion people worldwide live on less than two dollars a day. According to late

C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart, both Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award recipients,

companies should not ignore these traditionally overlooked people, collectively dubbed the

“Bottom of the Pyramid,” because of their considerable combined purchasing power. Thus, if

companies are innovative enough to create or tailor their products to the economic realities

and life needs of these people, a significant profit can be made. At the same time, this group’s

entry into the market would hopefully better their quality of life and aid in regional economic

development.

Three well-publicized examples will help illustrate the base-of-the-pyramid concept. Grameen

Bank was started by Nobel Prize laureate Muhammed Yunus in Bangladesh to offer mini-loans

to entrepreneurs who wouldn’t qualify for traditional bank loans based on collateral. As of may

2009, over nine million people have borrowed from the bank with incredibly high levels of

repayment. PlayPumps is a water pump that runs on the energy created from children playing

on a merry-go-round. Advertising space on the pump’s storage tank generates revenue that

covers maintenance costs. Lastly, cell phone providers have developed means of selling

relatively cheap services to remote villages, for e.g. farmers can check Grains/Vegetable prices

at the nearest market before deciding to lug their product into town.

There are no dearths of such examples. List of popular projects working rural India is given

below:

Company Business Model

Drishtee Use of kiosk-based platform to deliver services

SKS Microfinance Use of for-profit model of microfinance


ITC’s e-Choupal Virtual clustering of all the value chain participants

Hindustan Lever’s iShakti Rural entrepreneur using Shakti kiosks

Hewlett Packard’s photo training The Village Photography Program

DICNIC Use of IT for information management at rural level

AgRIS, The Agricultural Resources Information System

AGMARKNET Marketing & Inspection (DMI), Ministry of Agriculture

initiative

SeedNet, National initiative for information on quality seeds

eKrishi Market Driven Agricultural Initiative through IT enabled

Agri Business Centers

1.2 Innovation Sandbox

Innovation sandbox is a

collection of constraints

within which a company

has to innovate to

successfully serve any BOP

market given by C K

Prahalad. The process for

designing breakthrough

innovations in a BOP

market starts with the

identification of the

following four conditions

— all of which are difficult to realize, even when taken one at a time:

http://www.echoupal.com/


1. The innovation must result in a product or service of world-class quality.

2. The innovation must achieve a significant price reduction — at least 90 percent off the

cost of a comparable product or service in the West.

3. The innovation must be scalable: It must be able to be produced, marketed, and used in

many locales and circumstances.

4. The innovation must be affordable at the bottom of the economic pyramid, reaching

people with the lowest levels of income in any given society.

In countries like India, with 700 million bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers at varying levels of

income, the need for innovations that meet these criteria is now becoming obvious.

This approach could be called an innovation “sandbox” because it involves fairly complex, free-

form exploration and even playful experimentation (the sand, with its flowing, shifting

boundaries) within extremely fixed specified constraints (the walls, straight and rigid, that box

in the sand). The value of this approach is keenly felt at the bottom-of-the-pyramid market,

tough any industry, in any locale, can generate similar breakthroughs by creating a similar

context for itself. Global industry is plagued by high costs, stultified traditions, a variety of

regulators it is an exceptionally difficult venue for business innovation. In India many

breakthroughs are taking place in the BOP sphere.


2. Drishtee: Leveraging the BOP opportunity

2.1 About Drishtee

The company we have focused for identification of the strategy implementation at the BOP

markets is “Drishtee”. Drishtee is a social enterprise focused exclusively on rural India. But

while that puts it in a decidedly exclusive category, it

doesn't begin to tell the complete story of who Drishtee is

and what makes it special. That's because Drishtee is as

much about character as capabilities. The philosophy that

inspired our creation and continues to inform our every

move is what enables us to develop truly innovative

solutions.

Like most great ideas, Drishtee was born from the passionate belief in professional solutions.

The founders (Satyan Mishra, Nitin Gachhayat, and Shailesh Thakur) understood all too well the

shortcomings of existing solutions to reach the people at the base of the pyramid and the

difficulties and frustrations they inspired. Rather than to accept these challenges, they

developed a better way to reach the people at the helm of exclusion.

Over the years, Drishtee has facilitated and supported a

network of over 14,000 rural enterprises to cater to the

critical needs of base of the pyramid. Currently, Drishtee

has strong presence in 3 states of India namely, Assam,

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Through this low cost, direct delivery rural supply chain

network, Drishtee has created significant cost and time

savings for villagers, and provided an effective channel for

enterprises to sell products and services. This is a fastest growing such network and continuing

at this pace, could well become the world's largest rural distribution network.


2.2 Drishtee’s Strategy Drishtee

Like many firms which started operations in the infamous dot-com era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Drishtee’s and Information and communication company has taken roots because of its strong ability to recognize opportunity combined with an expertise in designing and delivering technology. Started in the year 2000 in Dhar (Madhya Pradesh, India), Drishtee’s first project was to develop and implement web-based software for “Gyandoot”, an e-governance initiative to deliver government services to the rural poor at their doorstep. Gyandoot rapidly gained international recognition, leading to the Stockholm Challenge Award later that year. More importantly, Gyandoot sowed the seed of Drishtee by providing its founder, Satyan Mishra, with the vision that ICT and rural entrepreneurship could spread across rural India, leveraging technology and new business models to offer solutions for rural development.

Mission:

“To make marginal communities more efficient, self-sufficient, and equitable”

Strategy Implementation:

Drishtee’s implementation strategy is to create the core supply chain model. Once this route is

created and is economically viable, then several important services that can make positive

social impact can be provided through the same route.

Drishtee’s focus is to create sustainable eco-system in villages comprising of micro-enterprises

which are run by local entrepreneurs, especially women.

Business Model:

Drishtee offers various solutions for different categories of people, Products/services at a

drishtee shops depend on the entrepreneur’s investments and capability to deliver the services.

An eligible person can opt for any of the two existing options. The Regular kiosk or the

computer-based kiosk and the Tele Sales Center (TSC) or the non-computer based services.


Drishtee is a Network Orchestrator for delivering fee based services to the rural population

through ICT Kiosks. The services include e-Governance, Education, Health, Insurance and local

services. The ICT center (Kiosk) is owned and operated by a local entrepreneur.

The business model of Drishtee relies on kiosks which are run by local entrepreneurs. These

kiosks are connected to the supply chain network. For this network, it identifies and creates

several routes in a given district which are called ‘milkman routes’. Each route is able to serve a

minimum of 20-25 villages. The model works on the assumption that once the supply chain link

is established in a village, more essential services can be provided through this. The model can

be replicated across the globe and in addition to providing last-mile connectivity, it also

encourages entrepreneurship.

Revenue Model –

Drishtee earns its revenues from the upfront franchise fees it receives from the entrepreneurs.

Drishtee has used revenue sharing model in which the focus is on the sales-based revenue

sharing. Drishtee was able to reduce upfront franchise fees, reducing risk for entrepreneurs and

eliminating fee collection challenges through this.

Cost Model –

The major costs are incurred in selection, and training of local entrepreneurs and web-based

tools for BPO operations etc.

Key rules:

Following are the key rules Drishtee works with-

Demand-driven operations:

Knowing the needs of the customers and planning the operations around it. Drishtee tried to

assess the needs of their end-customers by talking to them. The basic services that were

needed by the customers were healthcare, education, and microfinance. Drishtee also used this

concept to build its network at the points where demand was focused.

Working with the local customs:

Drishtee appoints locals to run the kiosks, thus bypassing the intermediaries. This strategy helps

it as the locals are comparatively more trusted and trained as compared to the intermediaries.

Focus on the core mission:


Drishtee has this rule of not going beyond its mission. This rule is kept in check by two

principles –

Keep the costs as low as possible:

This helps them to provide more value at as low cost as possible. They constantly work on

improving efficiency, e.g. sharing the services between kiosks.

Low margins and high volumes:

Since the cost of the services is low, the margins for Drishtee from individual units are also low.

This is so because of fragmented nature of rural communities and low paying capacity of locals.

So, the model can work only through large volumes.

Services:

The services that are being provided through drishtee’s network are-

Healthcare:

Healthcare is a very big issue for rural India where most of the people don’t have access to

qualified doctors, health care facilities. The cost of health care is high because villages don’t

have sufficient infrastructure for this and the residents have to avail these services through

neighboring towns.

Drishtee identifies and trains health franchisees of which mostly are women in a particular

community cluster. They give training on business operations as well as some basic healthcare

like first-aid, basic diagnostics etc. Women health franchisees help because other women in

villages find it more comfortable to go to them and they are more trusted by the residents.

Through these health franchisees, Doctors and lab technicians also visit the villages weekly and

provide telephonic consultation.

This model allows Drishtee to bypass the self-appointed intermediaries who are mostly

untrained for providing medication and also charge very high prices for their services.

Education:

Drishtee provides education (mainly computer education) to the people in villages. The courses

are such that they allow livelihood creation in villages where people can get trained and enjoy

employment opportunities in the rural BPOs. This helps in reduction of distress migration from

the villages where youth tend to move from villages to urban centers due to lack of education


and employment opportunities in villages. This also helps Drishtee to build capability in people

for creating micro-enterprises.

Financial Inclusion:

Financial services are not easily available to a large part of rural population in India. The

problem is intensified due to presence of intermediaries who charge high commissions or very

high interest rates to provide financial services to rural people.

Financial services are very important for development of rural economy. Drishtee provides

micro-finance services and banking services in rural areas. It has tie up with SBI for these

services. Drishtee is looking forward to creating and capturing business opportunities for

entrepreneurs in villages to provide financial services.

Product Distribution:

Distribution of any product in rural India is a big challenge. Most of the products being sold

through rural retail stores are not of appropriate quality. Drishtee includes the local

unorganized retail stores in its franchisee model under Drishtee rural Retail Points. These

franchisees help Drishtee to provide people with good quality products.

Drishteehaat:

It is an online platform for rural producers to sell their products to customers around the globe.

This initiative also provides the producers with market information on costs, trading etc. and

capacity building and technical support to produce high quality products.


Rural ICT (Information & Communication Technology) Lifecycle:

Drishtee, a social enterprise works to create an impact in villages through micro-enterprises run

by entrepreneurs with a specific focus on women. First, Drishtee identifies and creates a

number of 'milkman routes' in a given district. This direct rural supply chain network saves

money and time for villagers and provides an effective channel for enterprises to sell products

and services. In each route, Drishtee provides a kiosk-based platform to deliver services such as

health, education, banking, microfinance, along with opportunities to provide market access

and linkages for physical products such as mobile phones and agricultural products. Drishtee's

implementation strategy rests on the core supply chain model it creates: once the route is

economically viable, many critical services that have a positive social impact can utilize the

same infrastructure.


The Bottom of Pyramid (Drishtee is mainly concerned with the bottom most layer)


Structure: The Company is currently serving 10000 villages with an aim to serve 600000 villages.

The structure of the company is following:

Corporate Office

Area (headed by area commander)

Territory (headed by territory commander)

Division (headed by division commander)

Block

Drishtee also has a different form of structure – by offering franchisee. Drishtee provides

extensive training for entrepreneurship, marketing skills, clear and simple service delivery

manuals and continuing professional advice to support your business and help you

Set up the respective franchisee (Educational, Health, Micro-finance and Retail Points)

Effectively aggregate and manage business

Connect you with the Drishtee's Divisional Office and ensure continuous service flow

Efficiently operate your center and manage business

Create a successful business that you own

Shared values: The core values of the company can be easily understood from their mission

statements. The mission of Drishtee is simple: “To make marginal communities more efficient,

self-sufficient, and equitable.” To keep that mission focused, Drishtee defines each of those as

follows:

Marginal communities—Drishtee serves low-income geographies that lack economic

opportunities and “the access to services such as education and livelihood opportunities

and that live in under-served or dismal conditions.”


Efficient—Lack of infrastructure makes the cost to bring opportunity to marginalized

and rural areas prohibitively high. Drishtee invests great efforts to provide important

services like education at low cost and in less time in such areas.

Self-sufficient—Local access to basic services is vital to survival in the modern age. The

aim of Drishtee is to help communities increase their internal capital, build their

capacities, and enhance their skills. Effective educational opportunities definitely help in

increasing internal rural capacity.

Equitable—Drishtee is trying to lessen the existing gaps “between rural and urban

communities and between low-income and high-income geographies by providing equal

access to all.”

Style: The operation is divided into vertical teams that focus on product development, health

systems, micro financing, or education and service teams that manage the network and

demand response.

Here are some of the challenges they have faced and lessons they have learned along the way:

Lesson No. 1—Be demand driven

“Everything has to be demand driven,” says Ms. Mishra. Drishtee took this philosophy down as

far as it could go, to the micro-level, going door to door and talking with the people Drishtee

wanted to serve about their needs. The two-month exercise provided some very specific

lessons about what services were required, helping to shape Drishtee organizationally, forming

its foundational vertical segments of health, education, and microfinance, with e-commerce

and business process services coming soon.

This concept, which is demand-driven, even helped dictate how Drishtee organized its supply

network. Rather than trying to create a new network, Drishtee built its supply network at

existing rural meeting points where demand was already focused. Using these points has not

only served the community, but helped Drishtee create an efficient network to serve these

areas. “The network became demand driven,” Ms. Mishra said. “You need to keep assessing the

changing demand and evolve the model accordingly.”

Lesson No. 2—Strengthen the local system, don’t destroy it

One of the biggest issues affecting the well being of rural families is the high cost of

intermediaries, with about 30% of any family’s earnings going to these middlemen who add no

value, Ms. Mishra explained. “If we can reduce the pressure a typical family faces by saving

them some or part of these 30%, then we are creating big value for them,” she said. These


intermediaries operate in almost all areas, including access to government services, healthcare

facilities, or for many types of loans and financial services.

For example, if someone in one of these areas were to apply for a loan to start a business, they

have to pay anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of that loan amount just to someone who helps

them get the loan from the bank, Ms. Mishra said. If they have to go through more informal

sectors for loans or financing, they face astronomical interest rates from loan sharks of 60% per

month, often bringing generations into debt. The problem isn’t much better in the healthcare

arena, where access doesn’t exist. People often have to pay an intermediary to take them to

the hospital if there is an emergency, costing them up to five times the normal cost of travel.

“There are non-qualified people earning money while offering no value. It makes the whole

supply chain inefficient,” Ms. Mishra said.

In order to handle the banking issue, Drishtee added micro financing services in which people

can get reasonable loans to start a business, enhance an existing one, or for other needs. In

healthcare, Drishtee conducted a study of chemist shops (pharmacies) that serve these

communities. The study found shops run by people who did not know medicine sold un-

prescribed medications and medical advice.

To counter this, Drishtee, in a partner program with Nike, appointed and trained healthcare

franchisees (mostly women) at each stop along the existing rural network. These women are

trained in emergency care, basic medical needs, and basic diagnostics. This step has allowed

Drishtee to reduce their dependence upon intermediaries (mostly untrained men who offer

medications and other services without any medical training). Because the trained women were

not perceived as threats at first, they were able to slowly become trusted members of the

community. The model has proven successful in a number of pilots, and now Drishtee is rolling

it out to 2,500 local hubs. It is also looking to expand services, including a pilot program with

Honeywell to add diagnostic equipment to the network. “You have to go to that level of micro-

understanding, strengthening the local ecosystem, instead of disturbing it,” Ms. Mishra said.

Lesson No. 3—Focus on the core mission

“Everywhere we’ve kept to one rule: we would not go beyond the basic requirements and

mission of the company,” Ms. Mishra stated. “We stick with the basics, never forgetting what

value we are trying to create. Every decision is driven by these values.” Part of this effort is

looking for the most cost effective answer. “If we can afford to get something done with (just)

10 rupees, we would, never try to overdo it,” she said. “We want to create more value for the

people we serve than owning more value ourselves.”

Systems: The primary difficulty Drishtee faced was in setting up its financial system which can

generate a steady flow of income. There were many organizations that were ready to give


grants. But Drishtee wanted hard cash which could be further invested in profit generating

activities.

The basis of generating revenue is through fees. Drishtee targets a household with monthly

income of Rs 3000, which is slightly below poverty line. They have an estimate that these

households spend Rs 1500 on goods where Drishtee can play a part. Drishtee offers services

through its franchisee and the households have to pay fees for that service. For example, if a

household spends Rs200 per month on health services, Drishtee will try to bring the expense

down to Rs 150 and expects to get 10-20% of the fees. This fee is the basic source of revenue

that Drishtee gets.

There are other partners of Drishtee who give aid for various activities. Some of them are

following:

1. Acumen Fund – It is one of the leading investors in Drishtee. With Acumen Fund's

investment, Drishtee is expanding its entrepreneur programme to include a variety of

health related services. Drishtee also increases the overall number of entrepreneurs and

the geographic coverage. Acumen Fund has also availed structured loans made to

Drishtee Foundation, a not-for profit trust to support rural entrepreneurs by providing

them with micro-credit.

2. International Finance Corporation - Its Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI) has provided

Drishtee with grant funding to reinforce and scale up its network of entrepreneurs.

3. IFMR Trust had partnered with Drishtee Foundation to pilot a kiosk based individual

lending model for financial services delivery through entrepreneur owned kiosks.

4. Nike Foundation is supporting Drishtee to enable women entrepreneurs in rural India.

This partnership has helped increase the percentage of women entrepreneurs from 10%

to 30%

Skills: There are two types of skills required by the Drishtee team. One is the team which sits in

the corporate office and does the managerial work. Another team is the field team. The general

qualification required for the field team or franchisee partners are following:

10+2 or 12th pass

Working knowledge of basic computer skills

Prior business experience


3.3 Strategy Implementation

Implementation of the Bottom

of pyramid Strategy by

Drishtee:

In analyzing the BOP

implementation of Drishtee we

have used the below

framework given by

Management Guru C K

Prahalad.

According to C K Prahalad the

problem of poverty should be

solved as a Co-Creation

solution towards economic development and social transformation (figure), of which the

parties involved are:

Private enterprises

Development and aid agencies

Bottom of the Pyramid consumers

Bottom of the Pyramid entrepreneurs

Civil society organizations and local government

In the below analysis we have tried to describe the role played by each of the 5 players in

Drishtee’s BOP strategy.

CREATING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR BOP MARKET

Drishtee is primarily an Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Company. It is focused

on providing ICT services in Rural India. Rural India tough poor, houses 700 million people, the

largest market in terms of no of consumers. Drishtee is focused on providing Innovative

solution to the rural masses.


Traditionally the Rural Consumers are connected to the market through the Middlemen, As

each middle man is different the information available to the rural masses is not guaranteed of

consistency or always of high quality, chances of distortion of information, corruption etc are

high, to sum it up the present system does not offer the most efficient services to the

consumers.

Implementation of the BOP Strategy: Creating Rural Entrepreneurs “The Drishtee Kiosks”

Drishtee Kiosks: Drishtee has telekiosks called Drishtee Soochanalaya set up in villages. The

analysis of this strategy is done in 3 parts

o Setting up a Kiosk, Rural entrepreneurship

o Services Offered through the Kiosks


o Revenue Generation/Cash Flow

Setting up a kiosk: Drishtee follows the franchise model in setting up the kiosks; this

encourages the entrepreneurship among the rural masses. Drishtee prefers women

entrepreneurs, the most likely reason for this being men majorly spend their time in looking

after their agriculture land

Drishtee does a comprehensive location/village survey, i.e. the village where a kiosk is to be set

up is chosen, then it conducts a launch program at Panchayat/Group meetings. It selects the

owner of the kiosk from a number of applicants. After selecting the owner goes through a

comprehensive Phase I training program. After phase I Drishtee reserves the right to reject the

owner, the owner also has a choice to withdraw. Once Phase I is completed the owner has an

understanding of the business and Drishtee would have gained confidence in the owner. Details

of the loan required to setup the kiosk and the Kiosk owner agreement are worked out. Phase II

Training involves detailed training to the owner, Hardware deployment details are also worked

out. After this the Kiosk services is launched, drishtee also conducts the promotion program of

the ICT services. Thus a new entrepreneur in the BOP has successfully set up his/her shop.

What does a kiosk contain? A kiosk primarily houses a computer, digital camera, Internet

connection over a cell-phone line, and printer, the system is basically connected to drishtee’s

Intranet. . Investment involved in setting up a kiosk is roughly 1300 USD.



Products and Services Offered:

As the Rural consumers have limited resources to spend, the services and products should

match their budgetary constraints and they should also see value in buying at the kiosk,

Drishtee has categorized its offerings in 3 service types each offering a different feature to the

consumers.


Savings services offer services at a price lower than they are available through the conventional

system. For e.g. when a person wants to apply for a Drivers license or request a copy of his birth

certificate, he has to travel to a distant regional government office a number of times, the same

person sees more value in applying for the same through Drishtee Kiosk.

Income Services How does Drishtee help rural customer increase his Income? E-Commerce

through kiosks offers the consumer an opportunity to sell his produce to the Business normally

located at urban locals. Drishtee also has set up Business Process outsourcing (BPO) centers

offering rural youth jobs.

Buying Goods: Consumers buy goods like FMCG products, Consumer goods, Information like

Prices of agricultural products, Insurance etc. Many times companies which produce goods for

rural market, often find it difficult to have a reliable distribution channel, Drishtee offers a

corporate network for distributing the same goods which is highly reliable and easily

accountable.

Revenue Generation

For every product/service sold Drishtee and the owner take a small amount of fee/cut, for

example for a Drivers license application they charge about 25 rupees to the customer. For


every new insurance policy sold they get a small cut. Also the franchise owner also pays a

monthly fees of 11$ to Drishtee. As Drishtee model started becoming successful a range of

companies like Banks, Insurance companies, Healthcare etc have shown interest in selling

products through the kiosks

Products and Services Mix of Drishtee

Government Services

Secondary Healthcare

Employment

Micro Loan

Marketplace

Basic Education

Electricity

Computer Education

Spoken English

Primary Health

Digital Photography

Commodity Market price

Electronic Products

Household Items

Seeds & Fertilizers

Insurance


Working of the Health care and Health Insurance through Drishtee

Development and aid agencies and Partnerships

Nonprofit organizations see BOP business like Drishtee as organizations worthy of lending

Money or provide Support (Technical or Otherwise). E.g. The Acumen Fund, a non-profit global

fund led by Jacqueline Novogratz has invested in Drishtee’s. Drishtee success has attracted the

attention of Clinton Global Initiative; such attention increases the Brand value of Drishtee and

also acts as morale booster to continue the good work.

Drishtee and Microsoft

Microsoft has collaborated with Drishtee in a mutually beneficial arrangement, some of the

salient points of the collaboration are


• Research on 150 kiosks to understand rural computing and usage behavior of Kiosk

operators/community

• Joint promotion of rural ICT concept

• Tablet PC – To explore the usage of Tablet PC for rural e-commerce and e-health

initiatives

Drishtee and Intel

• Development of a low cost, rugged Rural PC now called as CPC

• Research input for low cost computing options

• Service level research to suggest possible customization of memory chips

• Joint promotion of rural ICT


3. Conclusions Drishtee’s provides solutions to include people at the base of pyramid from rural India in the

direct supply chain delivery network. India has over 6 lakh villages, several of which are very

remote and cut-off from urban centers. Providing products & services to such areas is a

challenge at supply chain end. People there have to rely heavily on intermediaries, who in turn

charge excessively as fees for the services. Drishtee works on providing direct service to these

areas by creating entrepreneurial clusters there and then connecting them through the supply

routes. Thus, Drishtee seeks to provide last-mile connectivity to remote villages for essential

services like health care, microfinance, and education. The company’s approach is of double-

bottom line which helps in implementation of financially sustainable solutions, which create a

strong, positive social impact in rural India.

Through micro-enterprises run by entrepreneurs with a specific focus on women Drishtee tries

to create an impact in rural India. Initially it identifies and creates a number of 'milkman routes'

in a district. This direct rural supply chain network saves money and time for villagers and

provides an effective channel for enterprises to sell products and services.

There are several lessons that others can draw from Drishtee, like:

How to capturing opportunities by eliminating the middle man.

How can a company do well by doing good

Benefits of creating entrepreneurs as business members

How to serve the rural market


4. References

http://www.drishtee.com/cms/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZf_xwvNvMo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYvoHeYe8fk

http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.aspx?CompURI=tcm:7-43224

http://omulga.riversstate.org.ng/Netgrowth/ICTWorkshop/Case_Studies.asp?CategoryID=612&Case_StudiesID=2109249522&PartnerLong=OpenCityPortal&Language=English

http://216.119.85.221/artman2/publish/indian-jobs/article_20878.shtml

http://www.cab.org.in/ICTPortal/Lists/Knowledge%20Bank/Attachments/55/Drishtee%202006_23_12_2007.pdf

http://www.sksindia.com/index.htm


http://www.hllshakti.com/sbcms/temp1.asp?pid=46802251

http://www.kupnet.org/i-community/village-photographers/

http://disnic.gov.in/concept&approach.htm

http://www.agricoop.nic.in/

http://agris.nic.in/agrisintro.htm

http://www.agmarknet.nic.in/

http://www.seednet.gov.in/

http://www.videosewa.org/index.htm

http://www.e-krishi.org/


http://www.drishtee.com/cms/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZf_xwvNvMo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYvoHeYe8fk

http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.aspx?CompURI=tcm:7-43224



http://216.119.85.221/artman2/publish/indian-jobs/article_20878.shtml



http://www.sksindia.com/index.htm


http://www.hllshakti.com/sbcms/temp1.asp?pid=46802251

http://www.kupnet.org/i-community/village-photographers/

http://disnic.gov.in/concept&approach.htm


http://agris.nic.in/agrisintro.htm

http://www.agmarknet.nic.in/

http://www.seednet.gov.in/

http://www.videosewa.org/index.htm

http://www.e-krishi.org/



5. Exhibits

Profile of Drishtee Entrepreneurs:

Poonam Bharadwaj

• Age:35 years

Qualification: Post graduation

Address: Kharkhauda, Meerut

Family Occupation: Heading a School

Kiosk Startup Date: January 2008

• Poonam Bharadwaj in not more than a year’s time

has built her own individuality and earned

appreciations from the Sarpanch and the Panchayat

people. Today Poonam has a minimum earning of Rs.3000- 4000 per month within a

year, which she knows will grow with the growth of her kiosk. She offers various

services from her center like computer education, digital photography etc., and has

plans to take up more services in the near future. She feels content, still has plans to

grow because according to her she has found a means to serve her society and

contribute to the development of her village.

Anwar Hussain Chowdhary

• Age: 36 years

Qualification: Graduation

Address: Tezpur, Assam

Family Occupation: Farming

Kiosk Startup Date: July 2006

Best Performance: Rs.17,000 in December 2007

• Anwar Hussain Chowdhary is a known name in list of

Drishtee kiosk owners. He has received award for his efforts to bring changes in his

society from Honorable President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He has been one of

the oldest kiosk owners and has been continuously working for rendering more and

more services to his community people. English and Computer Education has been one

of the main focuses for him as he wishes that every child of his village should be well


versed with English and Computers. Apart from this he has been successful in delivering

many other new and regular services to his village people.

Mohit Gangwar

• Age: 24yrs

Qualification: Graduation

Address: Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh

Family Occupation: Digital Photography Shop

Kiosk Startup Date: April 2005

Best Performance: Rs. 17,000/- in December 2005

• He represents the best of Drishtee Kiosk Owners who

have started with minimum income levels and then grown into a full fledged business

out of their Drishtee Kiosk. A digital camera in Drishtee model therefore has been a

point of initial attraction for Mohit like many others as well. The fact that he is bringing

so many benefits to his community and is a part of a rural revolution makes him proud

of owning a Drishtee Kiosk. Mohit is sure that his career peak is still to be reached

where he should be able to bring the best of both worlds together – High profits for his

Kiosk and services and social gains for the community

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