Lockdown positive: E-grameen goes to town on its rural feat | Economic Times

New Delhi: E-Grameen Store, a rural ecommerce app with around 100,000 online shop fronts since launch in April, is exploring partnerships with companies such as Patanjali and Coca-Cola to sell directly to rural areas through these e-stores, officials told ET.The hyperlocal ecommerce platform, which could give tough competition to Flipkart, Amazon and BigBasket, among others, is now targeting to reach every panchayat in the country, they said. The venture got a boost after the nationwide lockdown disrupted traditional supply chains, with village entrepreneurs collaborating with local farmers, fishermen and self-help groups to deliver everything from pumpkins to potatoes and fresh prawns to consumers, which would have otherwise rotted due to restrictions on transport and mandis.E-Grameen Store is a brainchild of the 400,000-strong Common Service Centres (CSCs) network under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, which also collaborated with nearby ration depots to provide essentials at people’s doorsteps during the first few phases of the lockdown. 76681488Till June 26, these e-Grameen Stores had made close to 300,000 deliveries worth ₹14 crore.The success of the model has made the government plan for a quick ramp-up of the rural commerce platform. “The strategy is to make 2 lakh centres of CSC e-Grameen Store covering every Panchayat and employing around five people each, which means that it will create employment for 1 million people in rural India,” said Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of CSC e-Governance Services. The venture has signed a partnership agreement with Patanjali, while Coca-Cola is exploring a partnership for an initial rollout in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana before going for a nationwide launch.When contacted, Patanjali said it could not comment immediately, while emails to Coca Cola remained unanswered.Under the model, a village-level entrepreneur of every CSC creates a personalised app depending on the need and availability of goods for his surrounding areas, and delivers those to customers. The government has collaborated with ecommerce firm Migrocer to create a master app which has a database of 80,000 products. The goods can be procured either directly from farmers or self-help groups or from nearby retailers, wholesalers or supermarkets.A model where a CSC e-Grameen Store becomes a wholesaler of goods in its area is also being explored, said Tyagi.“This is a completely ‘Made in India’ model and an early success story for the Prime Minister’s call ‘Vocal for Local’ call and the emphasis will now be to expand this further in terms of reach and product catalogue,” said J Raja Kishore, assistant VP of CSC e-Governance Services. “It is easy for the village level entrepreneur (VLE) to adopt this model because he or she is already digital-savvy since he/she has been dealing with digital payments, Aadhaar updating and enrolment, all kinds of e-governance services for villagers,” he said.