Rural is the new urban.
Looks like anything rural is the flavor of the month. Nokia has launched low-cost handsets targeting the rural consumers. ISRO is working on a satellite for rural Internet connectivity. All the telecom major’s are laying their networks to connect the rural areas as the urban market is near saturation.Now, its Infosys turn.
After coming up with a voluntary sabbatical scheme, Infosys has come up with one more first of its kind. Infosys is usually associated with high-end financial services for top clients. Their dollar rate is also high when compared with other Indian vendors. Given that background, Infosys targeting rural banks in India came as a mild shock to me.
Most of the revenues for Infosys come from US and financial services. The business from US and financial services were hit badly in the past 8 months. It has been looking to reduce exposure to both US and financial services. It looked west, then east and now within itself.
India as a consumption led economy offers huge potential. This potential is largely untapped. In this strategic shift, Infosys is targeting rural banks which are 90 in number. Their financial products (Finacle) will be rolled out to these banks. This will also help for the financial inclusion of largely un-banked Indian rural population.
Its about time Indian vendors turned to India for business.
On the other hand TCS continues to win large government orders. I wonder why.
Okay!!!! thats where we went wrong…..Sutra should had gone rural too :) we might have done better ;)
jus kidding…I like reading this article…we are going back to where bollywood started in the 50’s … targeting the rural market and the urbanization of the masses (i wonder if there is any divide left)