Title: Profiling Indian rural markets for supply chain management

Authors: K. Sunil Kumar; A. Subash Babu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala – 695016, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra – 400076, India

Abstract: The Indian rural market is set to become a billion dollar market in the years to come. With over 70% of the economy centred on the rural parts of the country, the marketers are now seeking ways to address this issue, as immense potential is latent in the rural parts of the country. In order to understand the rural supply chain (RSC) better, an attempt was made to identify the factors that are pertinent in the Indian context. After identifying these factors, data was collected pertaining to various dimensions that would provide an indication to these factors. The data was collected for rural regions of the major states in India. The data for the rural districts of a particular state was also collected as a sample so as to conduct a focused study. Appropriate tools were used to group the states of the country and the districts of that state. The results thus obtained would help marketers to evolve strategies looking at the communalities involved among the rural regions, the details of which are presented in this paper.

Keywords: rural supply chains; RSC; states; districts; communalities; India; rural markets; supply chain management; SCM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2014.063170

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.418 - 449

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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