Rural Business Hubs in India

The Rural Business Hubs in India are small nodal centers, which offer support for rural business and its practice in India. The main authorities involved with the establishment of rural business hubs in India are the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The involvement of public and private partnership is the main leveraging factor for these rural business hubs of India. The main aim of establishing of rural business hubs in India is to facilitate farming supports to the panchayats and rural blocks of Indian village. RBH is a flexible concept and the basic concept revolves around establishment of direct linkage between producer and traders of rural produce of India.

The block development offices are included to form the task force for the establishment of rural business hubs in India. The main activity of this task force is to provide backward linkage, monitoring and ensuring active support and cooperation to local rural villages of India. Further, an appointed ‘facilitator’ heads this task force, who coordinates all the activities at the local level and ensures smooth establishment of Rural Business Hubs in India. The process of opening of RBH in India involves six stages and the main activities of the Indian rural business hubs are enumerated as below -

• The first stage involves Gap analysis of the requirements of any particular rural business project of India.
  
  
• The second stage involves drafting of provisions for value addition, to make its products acceptable in domestic and international markets.
  
  
• The third stage involves, sampling of the agricultural products of India and undertaking a detailed analysis of the same.
  
  
• The fourth stage involves, the recommendations with respect to raw materials uses, technology, process, methodologies, design, packaging, marketing, branding, training and skill development.
  
  
• The fourth stage involves, a meeting of the task force, placing of recommendations and future plans along with identifying future course of action for the task force.
  
  
• The Rural Business Hub starts functioning commercially once the recommendations are ratified.
  
  

Further, the activities and contribution of the rural business hubs in India is not confined to development of Indian agricultural produce, but its portfolio covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as handicraft and handloom products, poultry farming, aquaculture, food processing, medicinal plants, bio-fuels, bio-mass based power plants, jatropha cultivation, etc. In the last one year, thirty-two memorandum of understanding (MOU) for rural business hubs have been signed and they are still at various stages of development.

The key identified factors which is hindering the economic growth of rural India are as below -

• Poor and inefficient market network
• Weak infrastructural setup
• Unorganized farming practices and scattered farm land
• Interference from a large number of intermediaries
• Absence of standardization and grading system
• Poor storage facilities
• Poor transportation facilities
• High freight charges

The achievements of the rural business hubs in India are as follows -

Agriculture and related area -

• Highest milk producer in the world and producing around 90 million tones of milk annually
• Second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and produces around 150 million tones of fruits and vegetables annually
• Have the largest livestock of 485 million
• Is the third largest producer of food grains and produces around 204 million tones of food grain annually
• Having around 489 million poultry and produces around 45,200 million eggs annually

Handlooms, handicrafts and other traditional products -

• Explored domestic and international to identify exporters
• Generated employment in an organized way
• Provided technical assistance to innovative design, adapting and using new materials and craft styles etc as per the international standards

The main authorities of the governing body, controlling the Rural Business Hubs in India are as follows -

• National RBH Council - Co chaired by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister for Panchayati Raj and Shri Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman of the CII Mission for Inclusive Growth
• State RBH Executive Committee - Chaired by Secretary, Minister for Panchayati Raj, Government of India
• State RBH Council - Chaired by state level Minister for Panchayati Raj or Secretary and co-chaired by CII high level State Office bearer

Last Updated on 19 May 2011