With the advent of Internet, the current information boom has supposedly benefitted all and boosted the economy. It has opened up access to vital information. But, this modern technology has not made a dent in India’s rural economy, inspite of half a century of attaining independence.
  
To change this dismal scenario, Development Alternatives and its marketing arm, Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), have launched a new service, TARAhaat.com, that brings relevant information, products, and services via the Internet to the underserved rural market.
   
By mobilising hidden or under-utilised assets and generating new ones, TARAhaat is a catalyst for creating wealth, both in the rural economy and for its shareholders.
   
Starting August 2000, in the districts of Bundelkhand surrounding the historical city of Jhansi (a region widely known for its poverty and harsh living conditions), TARAhaat became the first major "portal" designed from the ground up for the needs of village users. TARAhaat is a gateway that connects the village user to information services, government agencies, and, above all, to all kinds of markets. (A "haat" is the colorful, festive weekly village market common throughout India.) Given the continuing abundance of low hanging fruit in urban and upper income markets, there is virtually no competition visible on the horizon for TARAhaat.
   
The Internet cannot, by itself, build roads or bridges, or bring electricity or water into the village. It can, however, empower the village to demand such things more effectively – and to enable its people to generate the income to pay for them.
   
Operations
  
TARAhaat works quite simply. Even small children, village housewives, and illiterate people can use it from day one. The computer displays information in the local language of each region. For those who cannot read, it uses animated pictures, self-explanatory diagrams and voice-over. The villager talks to the computer by clicking a mouse or, soon, by a simple voice command.
   
Access: Few village homes today have a computer, but local businesses will be franchised to set up cyber kiosks (named "TARAdhabas") where everyone in the village can come and get connected. The National Youth Cooperative, representing 200,000 youth clubs, is an official partner for mobilising franchises and users.
   
Breadth: TARAhaat.com is a primarily horizontal portal, but several domains, such as medical services, commodity trade, and distance education, will feature strong vertical elements. TARAhaat’s central core is built around B2C links, but it is expected quickly to generate growing B2B and C2C traffic. For example, the subsidiary portal TARAbazaar.com will provide urban and overseas consumers with direct access to village craftspeople, opening opportunities for marketing products by millions of individual rural workers without their having to leave the village. Large food processing companies will be able to negotiate and monitor direct agreements with individual farmers for the purchase of tomatoes, peanuts, or sugar cane. Value addition from timely delivery and savings from by-passing some intermediaries can generate large revenues for seller, buyer, and TARAhaat.
   
TARAhaat is also a superbazaar, providing instant access to all kinds of products and services needed by rural households, farmers, and industries. For a few rupees worth of connect-time on the Net, the villager can obtain information about commodity prices, health facilities, land records, local development programs, jobs, and matrimonials. Users can shop for farm inputs such as seeds, machinery, and spare parts, and for household items, from bicycles to refrigerators, now becoming popular in rural markets. The goods ordered are delivered by franchised courier services, the TARAvans. TARAvans will also pick up packages meant for clients in other locations. TV entertainment, public telephones and other off-line services will be available in the larger TARAdhabas to attract customers and eyeballs and to generate a wider range of revenue streams.
   
Benefits
   
TARAhaat will directly create hundreds of thousands of jobs for people working in TARAdhabas, TARAvans, and the TARAvendors who supply goods for TARA-customers. It will create many more jobs indirectly through the mini businesses it enables local entrepreneurs to set up, thus bootstrapping the purchasing power needed in the community to sustain the viability of the local TARAhaat system. TARAbazaar.com will create additional income for local crafts and industries and also reduce the pressure of rural migrants on crowded and unliveable city slums. Most important, TARAhaat will open village homes to the world, bringing in news of politics, business, sports, and development, enabling every citizen to become an enlightened voter, a shareholder, and a participant in the nation-building process.
   
Financial structure
   
TARAhaat was launched with financial capital from its promoters, TARA and Development Alternatives, and from employees and their families and friends.
   
Additional resources have been raised through cash and in kind investments from strategic partners, including major corporations, government agencies and angel investors.
   
As the business grows, further funds will be raised from public financial sources and private investors. TARAhaat provides equity shareholder value and societal stakeholder wealth by domiciling a large part of its shares in a nonprofit foundation, the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, created to support civil society and community-based action aimed at accelerating national development.
    
The business model of TARAhaat ensures that each partner in its network – from franchise owner to TARAhaat.com user – makes or saves money, and thus secures both its sustainability and scalability.
   
TARAhaat is expected to break even within three years. After that, its current revenues and its investments in new facilities will be balanced to maintain a combination of reasonable net profits and high network growth rate. Emulating the proliferation of independent "Public Call Offices" (PCOs) that have so rapidly brought the telephone within the reach of nearly every Indian, TARAhaat expects to cover the bulk of the country, and to expand into other countries over the next five years.
   
The Launch
   
TARAhaat will be launched very shortly. Its promoters, Development Alternatives (DA) and Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA) are the premier sustainable development organisations in India. Its strategic partners include the National Youth Cooperative with its 200,000 Youth Clubs for potential franchises, mass publicity and client base, IGNOU for distance education, Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd for satellite dishes, Sankhya Vahini for terrestrial connectivity, James Martin & Co for software and DA/TARA for content and support systems. A consortium of Angel VCs based in New York have offered startup financing, with matching funds to be provided by USAID under President Clinton’s recent IT initiative. TARAhaat is now exploring strategic business alliances with government, businesses and voluntary sector agencies who have an interest in reaching the rural economy.
   
TARAhaat is the portal to a better future in the villages of India. It is about to bootstrap the village economy, leap-frogging even the most remote communities directly from the 19th century to the 21st.